The new state policy for categorizing books, House Bill 900 went into effect on Sep. 1, 2023. This affects what sort of books can be included and taught in public school libraries across Texas, including Clements.
The bill relates “to the regulation of library materials sold to or included in public school libraries” according to the official legislature online. It has received backlash; from readers to publishers, people in the book industry are fighting to prevent these book bans that are affecting not only Texas but the entire United States. To combat these bans, many authors, publishers, bookstores, students, and librarians across the nation have also been spreading awareness about the growing prominence of book bans. These bans make it difficult for retailers to sell appropriate material since they just don’t have the time and resources to properly categorize every title.
One such retailer, Blue Willow Bookshop, a West Houston-based independent bookstore, made a statement on Instagram claiming the bill would be “impractical and would be nearly impossible to implement.”
Individual retailers would have to read, review, and flag every single title, and small bookstores like Blue Willow don’t have the resources to do so. The categorization of the books themselves is outlined in the bill.
“Books are categorized as either sexually relevant or sexually explicit,” school librarian Marion Brennan said. Books with sexual content not relevant to the plot will have to be removed or tagged as sexually explicit.
“It impacts you as readers,” Brennan said. “If the vendors and publishers don’t sell the books, the authors won’t write the books.”
These readers, students, are already worried about the bill. “I think it’s stupid because we’ve had these books for so long,” senior Marz Hegazy said. “Besides, it’s going to a mature audience.”
In a schoolwide poll on the CHS RoundUp, 82% of the Clements student population did not agree with House Bill 900.
Although this bill hasn’t gone into effect at Clements yet, it has in Katy ISD. However, at Clements, there is an opt-in/opt-out email policy for checking out library books. If a parent chooses to opt-in, they will receive emails whenever their child checks out a book and it will state the title and if it’s flagged for sexual content.
“I don’t think book banning is required,” senior Anna Ray said. “You need to know what books are valid to put in schools.”
The only change at the moment is selecting what new books to be included in the library. Brennan is unsure when this bill will fully go into effect at Clements.
“Some people need to read [banned books] to gain knowledge,” Hegazy said. “The books give kids the opportunity to gain knowledge that they won’t get from a class.”
