WATCH as Laney Hawes, co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, breaks down Senate Bill 13, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law on June 20 and will go into effect on Sept. 1.
The bill requires that school boards, rather than librarians, have the final say over which books or materials can be put in school libraries, banning anything that doesn’t adhere to “local community values.”
It also creates an advisory committee made up of parents that the board can delegate decision making to, and requires that school districts remove books with “indecent,” “profane,” or “sexually explicit” material, and allows board members to veto new library purchases.
“The law was passed to make a political statement, not to solve a real problem,” Hawes said. “And one of the things we’re realizing is, it’s going to destroy school libraries.”
