Tempers have flared in Leander, Texas regarding a list of 11 books that have been removed from the Leander Independent School District curriculum after a year-long review that deemed them inappropriate for high school students.
In response to the decision to remove these books, one educator wrote a Dr. Seuss style poem, which refers to evangelicals as “bigots” and “kooks,” and recited it at a December school board meeting. Parents of students in the district have responded to the poem with outrage.
While the pulled books had not been required reading for literature courses, they were part of a list of texts that students could select from for required “book clubs.” Students were also allowed to select books that were not on the provided list.
After parents complained about some of the books on the “book club” selected readings list, which included titles such as “The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel” by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault and “V for Vendetta” by Alan Moore, the Leander ISD assembled a committee to review them. The committee consisted of staff, parents, and community members, who eventually determined that 11 books should be pulled from the curriculum because of sexual content, sexual assault references, foul language, and graphic images.
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While many parents saw the removal of these books as a victory, a number of educators and advocacy groups decried the decision as an act of censorship. Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America (a nonprofit organization that promotes literature), said, “The entire process has been unusual, opaque, and worrying—more about appeasing sensitive parents than serving student learners.”
“One cannot deny that the books on the chopping block all deal with LGBTQ+ issues, sex, and racism and that they were singled out because of these themes,” Friedman continued.
Krista Tyler, who is a former instructional technology specialist at Grisham Middle School in the nearby Round Rock Independent School District (ISD), also expressed her concern about the decision to pull the books in a December 16 Leander ISD school board meeting, though in a decidedly less diplomatic manner.
The Twitter account called “Libs of Tik Tok” posted a video of Tyler’s remarks, which were styled after Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
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“Everyone in Leander liked reading a lot, but some evangelicals in Leander did not. These kooks hated reading, the whole reading season. Please don’t ask why; no one quite knows the reason,” Tyler said. “It could be perhaps critical thinking causes fright. It could be their heads aren’t screwed on just right. But whatever the reason, their brains or their fright, they can’t follow policy in plain black and white.”
