The Keller Independent School District outside Fort Worth, Texas is removing copies of over 40 books from classrooms and libraries. The list of banned books includes The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, The Diary of Anne Frank, and all versions of the Bible from its schools, reports NPR.
Moving forward, every book available to students must all undergo another review under new criteria set by the school board, the district said in a statement.
"Right now, Keller ISD's administration is asking our campus staff and librarians to review books that were challenged last year to determine if they meet the requirements of the new policy," the statement read. “Books that meet the new guidelines will be returned to the libraries as soon as it is confirmed they comply with the new policy."
New members of the school board are said to have been endorsed by the Patriot Mobile Action, a conservative Christian political action committee, the PAC said in a news release.
Some parents are vehemently opposed to the book ban. Gretchen Veling, who has two openly gay sons, got involved in the book review committee after realizing that many of the titles that were being challenged were LGBTQ+ books.
"If they don't have access to a book that is reflective of who they are, does it just continue to make them feel like they're in a homophobic area?” So I started speaking up because of that," Veling said. "It's to all the other kids that won't have access to it, who really do need access to it."
The school district did not say if there was a timeline for when the book reviews would be completed.
