CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — House Bill 900, a bill which would ban sexually explicit and sexually relevant books from school libraries in Texas, was implemented in September.
Most people hear the words "book ban" and wonder how the state could be considering such censorship, but CCISD library specialist Lauren Smith said Tuesday the bill requires book sellers to submit ratings of the books they sell to the state.
"The biggest component of the House Bill 900 impacts vendors more than it impacts schools," she said.
What it does, Smith said, is double down on the obvious.
"CCISD does not buy sexually explicit books, so that's not going to change anything," she said. "As far as sexual relevancy -- if a book does get rated that way -- we will be required to have parent permission to allow a student to check out that book."
The Gregory-Portland Independent School District said it already has such standards in place, but will comply with what the state decides.
"So once the ratings are outlined by TEA and provided to us, some books that are rated in a certain manner would require parent consent," said G-PISD communications specialist Crystal Matern. "That would be something the school district would manage prior to checking out a book or being able to use materials."
Local officials won't get guidelines before those ratings are approved, which could be 2025 at the earliest.
And that is what the author of the bill, state representative Jared Patterson (R-Denton) had in mind.
"We have, for the first time ever, mandatory collection development standards that will be in place across the board at all 1,000 plus school districts in the state of Texas as bare minimum standards to put parents in their rightful place at the top of the pyramid," he said. "And to ultimately remove this explicit content from our public schools."
Meanwhile, book sellers have filed suit against the state saying the bill would force them to stop selling books to local school districts.