In October 2021, Matt Krause, a Texas lawmaker, sent a list of 850 books to Texas school districts that he labeled as books that could “make students feel anguish, or any form of psychological distress because of their race or sex”, and advised the districts to review them and remove them from their libraries. The subjects of said books range from: educational nonfiction books about racial equality/racial issues, resources about how to have safe sex, Roe vs. Wade, books about gender identity, and stories with LGBTQ centered relationships. 

While this advice is in no way mandatory and NEISD has no legal obligation to comply with it, the school district made the decision to review them and potentially remove these books from our libraries.

These books serve an important place in our community, as they not only provide important educational resources on Black history, they also provide a safe haven for young LGBTQ students who take comfort in this representation. Many black and lgbtq students in NEISD are appalled and hurt by NEISD’s decision to comply with Matt Krause and suppress our harmless resources and stories. We are asking for NEISD to take action against the suppression of our resources, and we are asking students to help us in advocating against this Krause list.

You can view the full list of “books of concern” here: https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/94fee7ff93eff9609f141433e41f8ae1/krausebooklist.pdf?_ga=2.11573559.2091958781.1635513476-272773625.1635513476 

For more information, refer to this article: https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list

Special Mention to Hallie Betts, who inspired me and helped me form this petition.