Clear Creek ISD introduces book-challenging policies

The committee will deal with complaints made under two similar policies, one for library material and one for instructional material, providing parents and community members more influence over what children in district schools learn, officials said.

The board unanimously approved the new policies Feb. 27.

With the vote, parents and community members can challenge any instructional or library book they believe violates a new set guidelines, which include examples such as promoting or endorsing race or sex stereotyping or race or sex scapegoating.

The committee, which is to be empaneled on a case-by-case basis, will include a librarian and at least one member of the instructional staff who has experience using the challenged material.

Other members can include district-level staff, secondary-level students, parents and any other appropriate people, according to the policy.

“These are two sound policies to make sure children have instructional materials that they need,” Trustee Jonathan Cottrell said during the Feb. 27 meeting.

The new policies create a mechanism for handling complaints such as children having access to inappropriate websites through the district’s electronic library resources, Trustee Scott Bowen said Thursday.

The policy also makes clear what types of material are open to challenge, Bowen said during the Feb. 27 meeting.

“The controversial issues section of the policy makes it clear where we stand on racial stereotyping, racial scapegoating and sex stereotyping and other issues like that where the district should not be taking a side,” Bowen said.

District resources for student instruction, employee training and professional learning cannot promote or endorse race or sex stereotyping or race or sex scapegoating, according to the new policy on instructional materials.

The policy defines sex and race scapegoating as assigning fault, blame or bias to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their race or sex.

In 2021, a Texas law came into effect stating schools cannot “require or make part of a course” a series of race-related concepts, including the ideas that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,” or that someone is “inherently racist, sexist or oppressive” based on their race or sex.

Gov. Greg Abbott that year signed into law the bill that restricts how current events and America’s history of racism can be taught in Texas schools. It’s been commonly referred to as the “critical race theory” bill, though the term “critical race theory” never appears in it.

Clear Creek iSD’s new guidelines have been in the works since the fall semester of 2021, officials said, which was about the time the district began evaluating its library policies after a complaint about a book related to human sexuality available through the district’s digital library. A parent complained her elementary-school aged child had used an app to access the book “Sex is a Funny Word,” which covers topics such as masturbation and gender identity and includes cartoon images of naked bodies.

The district’s new library policy states library materials about human sexuality will not be made directly available to elementary school students, but will remain in a secure location and be checked out only to students with prior parental permission.

To make a formal challenge of instructional or library material, people will be provided with a copy of the policy and a request form. The material will be reviewed and considered for removal by a committee appointed by the assistant superintendent of Teaching and Learning on a case-by-case basis, according to the district.

That committee will be tasked with deciding whether a challenged book or material will stay in the library or curriculum, or be removed.

The changes come as libraries across the country have seen an increase in challenges to books, primarily ones telling the stories of people of color or gay and transgender people, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, previously told The Daily News.

Similarly, state Senate Bill 8, supported by state Sen. Mays Middleton, and set for a public hearing March 22, establishes policies giving parents the opportunity to review and give input on instructional and library materials in school districts.