(stock image via Depositphotos)The civil rights arm of the U.S. Education Department has begun an investigation into a Texas school district whose superintendent was recorded ordering librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed library books.
From NBC News:
The ACLU complaint was based largely on an investigation published in March by NBC News, ProPublica and the Tribune that revealed that Granbury’s superintendent, Jeremy Glenn, instructed librarians to remove books dealing with sexual orientation and people who are transgender.
“I acknowledge that there are men that think they’re women and there are women that think they’re men,” Glenn told librarians in January, according to a leaked recording of the meeting obtained, verified and published exclusively by the news outlets. “I don’t have any issues with what people want to believe, but there’s no place for it in our libraries.”
Later in the meeting, Glenn clarified that he was specifically focused on removing books geared toward queer students: “It’s the transgender, LGBTQ and the sex — sexuality — in books,” he said, according to the recording.
The investigation, which stemmed from an ACLU complaint based largely on reporting by @NBCNews, @propublica & @texastribune, appears to be the first explicitly tied to the movement to ban school library books dealing with sexuality and gender, experts say. https://t.co/OmCfC23eri
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2022
Note: Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits schools from discriminating on the basis of sex, gender and sexual orientation.
In the days following Glenn’s remarks, the district pulled 130 titles, most of which featured LGBTQ characters or themes.
But when a volunteer review committee voted to reinstate all but a few of the books, two members of that committee filed a police report alleging the school district was providing “pornography” to children.
Here’s part of the recording of Jeremy Glenn speaking to librarians:
NEW: A Texas school superintendent was secretly recorded ordering librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed books from shelves.
Now the federal government is investigating the district. https://t.co/nmJf9SAhRi
Listen to the audio recording from January 2022: pic.twitter.com/ZuKwguayGZ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2022