Marium Zahra is a student and a sixteen-year-old independent journalist working from the Frontera in El Paso, Texas, covering education, culture, and politics. In this piece for The Progressive, she looks at the latest attempt to repress reading in the Lone Star State.
In May, the Texas legislature approved Senate Bill 13—legislation that would give parents and school boards greater control over what students are allowed to read in their public school libraries. The bill, which was signed into law by Republican Governor Greg Abbott at the end of June, also establishes new parent advisory councils that have the authority to determine which books are removed from school library shelves. For students across Texas, this law means increased censorship and decreased access to reading materials in our libraries and classrooms.
Under S.B. 13, local school boards have the final say over which materials are removed from school libraries and classrooms based on whether a book can be classified as harmful or indecent based on Texas law. The vague wording of the law also makes it so that classics such as The Catcher in the Rye and Romeo and Juliet could potentially fall under the definition of “harmful content.” While the law does exempt works that are included in instructional material (including state-mandated curriculum as well as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate curriculum), it may exacerbate the lack of representation of marginalized stories already pertinent in the state curriculum.
Furthermore, instead of school librarians choosing their yearly book orders, the law will give school boards jurisdiction over book approvals and removals. S.B. 13 also allows for the book orders to be delegated to local advisory councils made up of parents. Depending on which amount is fewer, fifty parents or 10 percent of the parents in a district can sign a petition to create an advisory council in their district.
As a high school student, entering my school library is a daily adventure. Perusing the bookshelves for my next read and deciding whether I’m in the mood for a classic, a fantasy, or a historical novel is consistently one of the most exhilarating parts of my week. Reading is a passion, and the thought that it can be limited by broad definitions of “harmful” dictated by a few parents is both scary and heartbreaking.
As a low-income student, my books often come from my school library because they are easily accessible. In turn, taking books off our shelves becomes an issue of removing access to diverse viewpoints, and S.B. 13 is an attack on accessibility, which largely affects low-income students.
For me, the issue with restricting and banning books also stems from the inherent bias of the process. A small group of parents can dictate what is harmful—and end up controlling what all students in the district can read. Book bans are direct attacks on knowledge. They ensure that we are restricted from learning about new ideas and adding new perspectives to old ones. In trying to erase what is harmful for students, our legislators are erasing nuance and our ability to seek out knowledge.