HB 900 aka the READER bill and bills like it not only disrupts students’ education, but would also open the doors for discrimination and puts stress on small business owners.
All students come from different families and backgrounds and some students search for inclusiveness to feel a sense of representation. Bill author and Texas representative Jared Patterson says this bill can even ban “Gray area stuff that you just don’t want your kids to have access to.” This so-called “gray area stuff” may include topics such as sexuality, race, disabilities and gender. A librarian at Tom C. Clark high school, Lucy Podmore, says that a majority of the books that have been banned in her library have included race, LGBTQ topics and other marginalized communities.
Classes everywhere use books to help teach. Biology, history, and environmental sciences all use textbooks to teach. These same textbooks would be affected by this book ban, if a parent believes that a topic in biology is inappropriate, then the entire book can be banned. When asked if books on puberty are being banned Podmore said “Yes”. We got the same response when we asked if the ban would include historical moments as well. This would mean that issues such as slavery, the stonewall riots, bodily functions, gender and sexuality could be deemed inappropriate in the classroom.
HB 900 would require vendors to review every book that comes through their doors before it’s sold. General manager at Nowhere Bookshop, Elizabeth Jordan says “ I Review about 20-30,000 books a month..” These bans force small bookstore owners to put more work onto their employees and train every employee to review the books. Owner of Houston’s Blue Willow Bookstore Valerie Koehler says “We don’t have the human or capital resources as a small independent bookshop to comply with the law as written.”
The main argument for the book bans is that books containing sexual or graphic material do not belong in the hands of students. TexasEagleForm president Cindi Castilla said during a committee hearing that “Sexually explicit materials are inappropriate for them…They are educationally unsuitable for students.” These bans don’t target sexually explicit books, but have shown extensive care on books relating to the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. There is also no reason to worry about pornography in schools. Podmore says “There’s no pornography in schools…there might be a sexual situation in two or three chapters of a 30 chapter book, but that in no way means it’s pornographic.”
These book bans are gateways to discrimination and limited education. Write to your local representative and speak at board and house meetings. This bill will only harm our students and small businesses.
