To Kill a Mockingbird Pulled from Leander ISD Classrooms due to "anti-DEI" SB12

Senate Bill 13 isn't the only new law wreaking havoc on Texas schools.

Yep. You read that headline right: To Kill a Mockingbird was removed from classrooms in Leander ISD in Central Texas, a district with a staunch anti-censorship school board and a robust culture of academic freedom, in the latest sign of just how badly lawmakers damaged Texas schools in the last legislative session.

Last week, administrators in Leander sent emails to teachers telling them to “pause” the use of a list of 40 books relating to “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion) that had previously part of LISD curriculum or choice reading activities.

The books removed include not only To Kill a Mockingbird, but also The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, The House on Mango Street, Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

The reason? Senate Bill 12, the “parental rights,” anti-DEI, anti-LGBTQ monster bill that also bans GSA clubs and forbids teachers from using trans or non-binary students’ pronouns or preferred names.

According to two district sources, AI was used to measure instructional texts against a rubric that took into account “DEI content.”¹ The books must be removed from all classrooms, and cannot be used as instructional resources—either as texts read in class or as choice books in classroom libraries. Though the books have received no formal challenge, they are currently awaiting further review.

One district teacher told me that their principal suggested they “remove any other books that may related to the same themes/ideas/topics as the ones currently being removed.”

In June, after SB 12 was passed, I recorded this video about its potential effects:

I said:

You put SB12 together with the other laws that have been passed in the last two sessions, and it now appears that Texas school libraries and classrooms are forbidden from containing books that someone judges to be indecent, profane, pervasively vulgar, educationally unsuitable, sexually explicit, or relating to sexual orientation or gender identity. And then, on top of that, because SB12 is also an anti-’DEI’ bill, you can foresee challenges to books that reference race, color, or ethnicity as well. Basically, Texas reactionaries are going to use this bill as a free pass to remove essentially any book they don’t like.

Book banners have told us over and over again that they’re just trying to take books with extreme sexual content out of public schools. Classics are safe, they’ve said. We’re not removing books based on the ideas they contain, they’ve said. We knew none of that was true; Senate Bill 12 proves it.

What can you do?

First, we need to get these books back on the shelves in Leander ISD. The LISD board is meeting on October 9th. Before and on that day, they need to hear from district residents and parents. If you’re not in Leander ISD, you can share this news with people who are in the district—try to get as much attention as possible directed towards this issue. These decisions happened below the board level, and I’m confident that when the board gets involved, they will work to rectify this mistake. Banning books that deal with race or racism is blatantly unconstitutional—the ACLU is already suing to stop SB12, and there is no reason for Leander ISD to violate its students rights.

Second, we need to hold accountable the lawmakers who passed SB12. The bill was written by Brandon Creighton, and Jeff Leach was its House sponsor. It had unanimous support from Republicans in both chambers. Write your representative and senator and let them know how the law is being used.

But, finally, we need to put some puzzle pieces together. Again, SB12 is far from the only book-banning bill that was passed last session. Many of the lawmakers who voted for Senate Bill 13 justified their votes by saying they weren’t voting to remove books for the ideas they contain. But then virtually all of them voted for Senate Bill 12, too. We need to let lawmakers know we see how these laws work together, that we’re not stupid, and that we’re not going to stand for them dismantling our Constitution bit by bit.

[NOTE: I’m writing this quickly to get it out before work today. I’ll add links later to help make those calls to action easier, so please check back. Also follow Texas Freedom to Read on social media for more calls to action.]

1. Perplexingly, the district also removed Les Miserables. Stop using hallucinating robots to make important decisions, people.