There weren't many seats to spare at the regular monthly board meeting at the Plano ISD Administration Center on Oct. 3. Many of those in attendance were there to take their turn at the microphone. While open chairs were in short supply that night, passionately provided opinions on the future of the district’s children were anything but.
Some of the speakers weren’t giving their opinions as much as they were vociferously admonishing the Plano ISD board of trustees and Superintendent Theresa Williams. There were raised voices, cartoonishly dramatic readings and an abundant supply of finger-pointing.
By now, there’s a good chance you know what topic would bring out so many vocal folks to a suburban school board meeting in North Texas. But just in case you aren’t quite sure, allow us to fill you in before moving forward: the Plano schools, apparently, have become quite the smut peddlers in the eyes of some district parents and even people without kids in the district. It's a claim that is seemingly being made across the state on a regular basis.
“I’m going to read you some pornography, brought to you by Plano ISD,” exclaimed Carrie Weeden, who identified herself as the mother of three local students, during the public comment portion of the meeting. She opened her arms wide as if to introduce her performance as she added, “Thank you for sexualizing our children.”
From there, Weeden read a passage from Elana K. Arnold’s 2017 young adult novel, What Girls Are Made Of. In an exaggerated tone, the mother at the mic recited a vividly detailed passage depicting a teen girl giving a teen boy oral sex. But the dramatic moment wasn’t yet over.
“You are sexualizing our children and this needs to stop,” Weeden said with a distinct rise in her voice before loudly aiming her frustrations at the superintendent. “Theresa, look at me, you look at me! This is wrong! Look at my face! I’m the mom of three kids, you know about this. We have been speaking about this in school board meetings since February. You need to get off your high horse, stop treating us like peasants and do what parents want.”
Other speakers, some almost as animated, took their turns addressing the board. Predictably, few of them veered off the standard list of conservative talking points usually espoused at such gatherings.
Talk of “grooming,” “poisoning” and “endangering” was a common theme from several speakers, each of whom received a minute and a half to talk. Those in attendance had to be warned to refrain from outbursts and applause when a speaker made a point the crowd felt worthy of celebration. Instead of audible cheers, some of those seated took to waving their hands in the air to applaud using sign language. One man on the second row repeatedly raised his left hand to the heavens, as one would in church, when a speaker made certain points he seemingly agreed with.
On the surface, it seemed like an unusually boisterous night in the ‘burbs, but especially in Texas, this scene has become quite common.
“I’m going to read you some pornography, brought to you by Plano ISD.” – Carrie Weeden, Plano ISD mother
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The Plano ISD parents who spoke at the October meeting want what many conservative lawmakers in Texas have been striving for over the past couple of years. Other speakers at the meeting included several people who have no kids in the district but have made it their mission to air their complaints about library books at school board meetings throughout the region.
A rep from Citizens Defending Freedom, a right-wing advocacy group, was present, as was Sara Gonzales, a conservative Blaze Media personality. Another man without kids in the Plano ISD, who identified himself as a grandfather from McKinney, conflated the books he doesn't want in school libraries with child sex-trafficking.
But interestingly enough, the majority of the people, including parents, who voted in the most recent elections for the Plano ISD board of trustees don’t necessarily see things the same way these angry speakers do.
Frank Strong, an Austin-area teacher, journalist and author of the Anger and Clarity Substack, a watchdog newsletter devoted to monitoring Texas school board decisions regarding books, LGBTQ issues and more, wrote about the October meeting, as well as the November regular open meeting. He told the Observer he was alerted to the developing book controversy in Plano by a teacher in the district. In his report, he emphasized the incongruous nature of the decision to remove dozens of books with the new makeup of the school board of trustees.
“In May, members of the Plano ISD community had the opportunity to weigh in on the culture wars that have engulfed school board elections for the past two years,” Strong’s Nov. 16 post began. “Three conservative candidates — Lydia Ortega, Greg Jubenville and incumbent Cody Weaver — leaned hard into censorship and anti-wokeness, campaigning on their opposition to drag queen story hour, 'critical race theory,' and books with sexual content.”
At a March 19 school board candidate forum in Plano, it was Ortega who said that “pornography,” not gun violence or drugs such as fentanyl, was the worst danger facing school kids. As Strong’s Substack post points out, Ortega and the other conservative candidates up for election in May lost rather easily. But none of that likely mattered much when the Oct. 3 meeting had ended.
The losing candidates may not have succeeded at the ballot box, but their collective cause seems to be doing quite well. Three days after the explosive October public comments to the board of trustees, Williams published a letter apologizing to parents for what she described as a sort of breakdown of the district's protocol regarding library books.
“We acknowledge the concerns regarding library books with explicit content,” the letter, posted to the district’s website stated. “In August 2022, the Board adopted a new policy, EFB (LOCAL), regarding library materials to ensure our libraries enhance their educational experiences and foster a love of reading. Just recently, this new policy has been tested for the first time, and it has become clear that we have more work to do as several books were appealed. In response, my leadership team and I will be reviewing our internal procedures to ensure calibration and consistency so appropriate decisions are made for the betterment of our students.”
Williams noted some changes that would take place immediately, including one that says the district will “pause library book purchases and centralize the process for future procurement.” Retraining of district staff in how to evaluate books is also on the superintendent's docket.
Furthermore, many of the books that had been evaluated and returned to school library shelves in the recent past have suddenly been removed again, this time it seems on a more permanent basis. When reached for comment, a representative from the Plano ISD specified that "No titles were removed from the collection simply because of the topic, ideas or viewpoint contained in the book," but also that "revised guidelines were applied to previously reconsidered titles."
It's fair to point out here that in the cases of the books brought up on Oct. 3, the complaints weren't aimed at topics, ideas or viewpoints, as the Plano ISD rep points out, as much as they were at specific, isolated passages involving, for the most part, depictions of sexual activity.
"The changes in our procedures were made in accordance with the provisions of Board Policy EFB (LEGAL and LOCAL)," the Plano ISD representative told the Observer via a email on Friday, Dec. 1, after the original version of this article was published. "With the recently revised Board Policy regarding library book selection and challenges, Plano ISD leaders collectively saw a need to review and update its processes and procedures for clarity and alignment."
What Girls Are Made Of now has a “Remove from PISD libraries” next to the title on the district’s website, as does Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, among dozens of other books that skew to an older teen audience and were available before the Oct. 3 meeting. Some of the books that have now been permanently removed have been included on the Advanced Placement Literature Exam before, according to Strong's article.
The Bible, a book that details its own fair share of sex, however, is currently marked as “pending.”
"... but if there is no transparent accountability, we will have no choice but to take action to address it ourselves.” – Shannon Ayres, Citizens Defending Freedom
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House Bill 900, also known as the READER Act, was also cited by a few speakers at the October Plano ISD meeting as the reason the board should more quickly move to ban certain books. By requiring school book vendors to vet and rate each title they sell based on the amount of sexual content it contains, proponents say the bill will help rid libraries of inappropriate books.
But over the course of 2023, the bill, authored by Frisco state Rep. Jared Patterson, has caused a great deal of confusion and is in legal limbo. It was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year, but has since been mired in federal appeals court for what opponents say are rules that are overly vague and broad.
Even with the Plano ISD revising its book review procedures, removing a number of titles that opponents found problematic and halting the purchase of more books, there were plenty of people ready to line up for November’s meeting. It was more of the same from the October meeting in many ways. But this time, instead of going after the books or chastising the board, some of the parents were taking their October victory lap as a moment to go after teachers and librarians. In this instance, the silly theatrics were replaced with clear threats.
Shannon Ayres, with Citizens Defending Freedom, approached the microphone and minced no words in suggesting the book on this matter will not soon be closed.
“As your internal review confirmed, the individuals who served on these committees showed extremely poor judgment and should never again be allowed to serve in any capacity that requires the review of any content and their appropriateness for minors,” Ayres said.
She didn't stop there. Before her allotted 90 seconds was up, Ayres got to her main point, saying “We expect that this board will address this immediately, but if there is no transparent accountability, we will have no choice but to take action to address it ourselves.”
