Based on a new Texas state mandate that bans reading material in school libraries which “describes, depicts, or portrays sexual conduct in a way that is patently offensive,” officials in a school district in the Texas panhandle recently removed the Bible from library shelves.
Then they put it back.
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In an email to parents in the sprawling rural district, school Superintendent Darryl Flusche wrote, “House Bill 900, which passed during the last legislative session, establishes library standards that restrict content in school libraries. This standard for library content prohibits books that have one instance of sexual content as described above. Therefore, HB 900 doesn’t allow numerous books, including the full text of the Bible, to be available in the school library.”
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Flusche had staffers take the religious text off shelves.
Some parents in the west Texas district weren’t happy, ABC Amarillo reports.
“It seems absurd to me that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books,” said parent Regina Keeney during public comments at a December 9 school board meeting.
“In a day where we are needing security guards, and bullet proof windows and doors, I think having the word of God available to our children can not only be preventative to violence, but also provide comfort and a sense of security in a chaotic world.”
The removal prompted consultation with House Bill 900’s author, Republican state Rep. Jared Patterson, and a reevaluation from the school district.
“After receiving clarification from Representative Patterson regarding library content, we reevaluated the guidelines and are pleased to have the Bible available in each of our Canyon ISD libraries.”
The Bible has become a flashpoint in several states and school districts around the country, as Christian nationalist officials seek to erase the line separating church and state by imposing Christian theology on schools and in government.
In Oklahoma, state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters ordered the purchase of 55,000 copies of the so-called Trump Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments along with the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, conflating church and government for students in a single text. Walters has mandated a copy of that Bible be placed in every Oklahoma classroom. Walters also ordered teachers in the state to play a video for students of Walters praying for Trump.
In Louisiana, a federal judge recently blocked a new law passed by state legislators mandating the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom in the state.
Louisiana is the first state to try to enact a law forcing the display of the Biblical directives since a similar law in Kentucky was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1980 as a violation of the First Amendment.
The judge called the Louisiana mandate “unconstitutional on its face.”
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