The details
The decision to pause services came after two separate hour-long executive sessions, in which board trustees weighed what impact Senate Bill 13 would have on the district, according to a news release. Texas lawmakers passed SB 13 during this year's regular legislative session, and it became law Sept. 1. It aims to give parents and school boards more oversight over school library books, as previously reported by Community Impact.
The bill requires schools across the state to maintain transparent library catalogs, allowing parents, through a formal process to be determined by the district, to restrict specific books they feel are too “harmful,” “profane” or “sexually explicit” for their children to read, according to the bill.
Effective immediately, any service or resource a student would receive from libraries is fully suspended at the district’s secondary schools, said NBISD Director of Communications Michelle Harwood, as officials review over 195,000 titles already on the shelves of libraries in NBISD–over a quarter of which, about 50,000 titles, are held at the district’s secondary schools.
Services at secondary schools in the district will remain suspended until the review is complete, but no timeline has been established, Harwood said.
NBISD will also create an advisory committee, consisting of three trustees, to be available to assist the superintendent in the future processes of purchasing and reviewing titles and services available to students in the district, according to the district.
The trustees who will lead the process have not yet been named.
