Book Banning, The Culture War on Books in Katy ISD.

In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 900, the Restricting Explicit and Adult Designated Educational Resources (READER) Act. The law was aimed at removing sexually explicit books from school libraries and required parental consent for students to access materials with sexual references. Two years later, the 89th Legislature passed Senate Bill 13, which expanded on school library content standards, broadened local review authority, and mandated the removal of challenged books. The law has spoken.

The framework is in place. So why are we still here?

Katy ISD Already Has a Process

Katy ISD has responded to state law with a compliance structure that gives parents real tools. Every time a student checks out a library book, the District emails the parent or guardian on file. Parents can manage those notifications through the KISD Parent Option Portal in MyKaty Cloud. I receive these Emails regularily for books checked out of the library and digitally from my children's chromebook.

If a parent has a concern about a specific title, they can submit a formal reconsideration request through that same portal, triggering a structured review process that includes both parents and instructional staff.

I understand that there are also Parent Opt-In shelves at the high school level for books that require parental authorization before a student can access them.

This is not a system without accountability. This is a functioning system with multiple layers of parental oversight built in.

The Human Cost We Are Not Talking About Enough

While board meetings have been consumed by book challenges, something quieter and more damaging has been happening to the people who run our school libraries.

School librarians are not hobbyists with a shelf of books. They are trained professionals, many of whom hold master’s degrees in library science. This is a credentialed, specialized field with its own ethics, standards, and decades of community trust. In Katy ISD and across Texas, librarians have faced public accusations, hostile board meetings, professional investigations, and in some cases, job loss, not because they did anything wrong, but because they showed up for the profession they were trained to do.

The 2025 documentary The Librarians, directed by Kim A. Snyder and now available on PBS, documents exactly this. The film follows school librarians in Texas and across the country who found themselves on the front lines of a culture war they never asked to fight, often at the cost of their well-being and their careers.

A small group of Texas librarians, calling themselves the FReadom Fighters, appear in the film after banding together to support one another through the attacks on their profession. You can watch the PBS NewsHour segment here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-fight-against-books-bans-by-public-school-librarians-shown-in-new-documentary

We cannot keep treating librarians as collateral damage in a political argument. I don't know about you, but I think librarians hold a true super power!

Where I Stand

I believe in parental rights. I also believe that those rights are already protected in Katy ISD, through notifications, opt-in shelves, formal review processes, and state law compliance.

I do not believe is that our board should continue spending meeting time rehashing a framework that is already in place.

Every hour spent on book banning is an hour not spent on teacher and paraprofessional pay, student outcomes, fiscal accountability, or the facilities needs of a growing district.

We have real work to do. Our students, our teachers, and our community deserve a board that is focused on that work.

It is time to move forward.