FRISCO, Texas — Republican Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco said his bill was 18 months in the making. He said the hardest part has been convincing people that the materials he was looking to ban from school libraries were even there to begin with.
“Concerned parents brought books to me that were so radically explicit in nature that, again, you couldn’t show it on television or read it on the radio because of FCC guidelines,” Patterson said, referring to the Federal Communications Commission. “Yet, it’s in the children’s library at school.”
This week, House Bill 900 – known as the READER Act – was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. It aims to keep pornographic materials away from children in the nearly 9,000 K-12 campuses in Texas. Under the new law, “sexually explicit” books will be taken off shelves, and “sexually relevant” books will go through a first-of-its-kind ratings system before its made available to students and will require parental consent.
Patterson calls the READER Act “model legislation for the rest of the country.” Despite this, the North Texas lawmaker said not every school district in the areas he represents is seemingly onboard with his efforts.
“We fought here in Frisco ISD, we fought them for a very long time,” Patterson said. “It shouldn’t have even been a discussion, it shouldn’t have even been an argument.”
WFAA reached out to Frisco Independent School District for comment on the newly passed law. The district gave WFAA the following statement on June 15:
"Frisco ISD does not take positions on legislation. However, during the session, FISD staff testified in the House Public Education Committee stating that many school districts have been caught between two opposed sets of community standards often hearing both that more books should be removed and that fewer books should be removed. HB 900 takes school districts out of the middle of the debate by providing a standard on which school districts must rely to ensure compliance with state expectations for library collections."
The Texas Library Association (TLA) has voiced concern over the READER Act. Shirley Robinson, executive director of the TLA, said the law will cause some “chaos and confusion” for librarians across the state.
“It’s going to take some time for everyone to figure out how this is going to work,” Robinson said. “There are going to be discrepancies in how its administered without very clear guidelines.”
Opponents of the bill, including the TLA, have said that the bill’s language is vague and broad enough to remove books that are not inappropriate. Some have argued that the definition of “sexually explicit” and “sexually relevant” can be ambiguous and can be subjective. Robinson said the TLA has already heard from a number of parents and students across the state.
“The thing that has been most important to parents, of course, is their involvement in their student’s education and what they choose to read,” Robinson said. “But they want to make that decision for themselves.”
Rep. Patterson said he believes the law he wrote is clear.
“The Texas Library Association is an enemy to children in this state,” said Patterson. “If you printed out the definition of 'sexually explicit,' it would go three-quarters of a page. It’s very detailed.”
The TLA said it also worries the absence of titles from shelves could restrict the learning and growth of students whose experiences may not be reflected in the books that would remain.
In response, Patterson said parts of the public have tried to make the bill “into something it’s not.”
“People and the media kept saying, 'oh, this is about classic works of art or, you know, this is about Black or brown characters' when that’s not even remotely close to true,” Patterson said. “The books that we challenged at Frisco ISD, 89% of the authors were white and straight.”
Patterson later added the law also does not target authors, or characters, of books that are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
The TLA said they worked closely with authors of the READER Act and had “a number of conversations regarding the legislation’s impact on librarians and the requirements of the book ratings system.”
Robinson explained that there are already censoring procedures in place for school libraries and agreed with Patterson’s efforts to remove instances of pornography from schools.
When asked about those discussions with the TLA, Patterson said he believed the association “may have testified against the bill” at some point.
Another worry for Robinson’s respective association is the book ratings system and how that would effect vendors selling and providing books to Texas schools.
“It’s going to create a lot of additional cost in the system, so schools will be paying more for the books that they put on their shelves, which is going to be passed on to taxpayers,” Robinson said. “It’s also going to increase the length of time that it’s going to take to get books on shelves.”
School book vendors range from independent local shops to large companies and stores like Amazon.
Under the READER Act, Patterson said any entity that sells books to schools in the state will have to give every title that has references or depictions of sex one of two labels — “sexually relevant” or “sexually explicit.”
The law defines “sexually explicit” as material describing or portraying sexual behavior that is “patently offensive” and not part of required curriculum. “Patently offensive” is listed as materials that are offensive to “current community standards of decency.” The law defines “sexually relevant” as material that describes or portrays sexual activity and is part of required school curriculum.
Vendors will have to give every book they’ve sold to school districts in the past one of those two labels. Lists of books with these labels will be submitted annually.
School boards typically have a set policy that helps support library standards at the district level, serving as a sort of first line of defense to help ensure that materials are appropriate, Robinson said.
In the meantime, Robinson said the summer will be busy for school districts and its librarians as they shuffle through books to get into compliance.
The READER Act law goes into effect Sept. 1, 2023.