Conservatives say the Biden administration is once again cracking down on parental rights by going after schools where parents fought to remove sexually inappropriate books.
The White House released a statement on June 8 announcing the appointment of a new DEO coordinator “to address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students.”
The release suggests that schools better put the books back on the shelves or face federal defunding.
“Today, in celebration of Pride Month, the Biden-Harris administration is announcing new actions to protect LGBT communities from attacks on their rights and safety,” the White House release said.
Many of the bans occurred in red states—such as Texas, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, and Utah—where lawmakers have championed the rights of parents fighting to protect children from sexually explicit books through new legislation.
Civil Rights or Ideology?
Title IX is the common name for a federal civil rights law enacted in 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or education-related programs that receive federal funding.The White House says Title IX protections extend to include gender identity and sexual orientation—an assertion being challenged in court.
The Texas attorney general’s office announced on June 14 that it was suing the Biden administration’s “unlawful interpretation of Title IX” regarding transgender ideology.
Parental rights groups and state legislators have condemned pressure from the administration on schools over sexual content in libraries as a similar overreach.
Tanya Parus, president of Moms for America in Sarasota, Florida, told The Epoch Times that the Biden administration has a history of wanting to silence parents that started when they pushed back against mask mandates during the Covid pandemic.
Parus called Biden’s new plan just as unconstitutional as the mandates.
“And now he’s at it again under the guise of civil rights,” she said.
Texas Republican lawmaker Steve Toth, who worked to remove inappropriate sexual content from his local school district in Montgomery County, said courts have always upheld parental rights. Hence, he thinks this battle will be no different.
Toth told The Epoch Times that courts have never said children have a right to see R or X-rated movies.
Toth sees the administration’s strongarm attempts to force libraries to carry inappropriate books as a similar legal issue.
“Texas will sue the federal government, and we will prevail,” Toth said.
The Biden administration’s release said that the bans threaten LGBT Americans, adding that 2022 saw the “highest number of book bans in 20 years.”
It said the banned-book czar would work to provide “new training for schools nationwide” on why LGBT materials should not be removed from library shelves.
Siccing FBI on Parents
The administration has already used the power of the federal government to subdue parents by targeting them with investigations, according to conservative lawmakers.The report resulted from an investigation into the “weaponization” of government resources against parents headed by GOP lawmaker Jim Jordan.
Meanwhile, the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has already started investigating schools that banned books after parents complained about them. The federal government contends banning books with LGBT authors or content creates a “hostile environment.”
The district initially removed several books after parents complained the material was sexually explicit, according to news reports.
Books in question included “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” by Jonathan Safran Foer, which describes how to perform a sexual act.
Another, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, is about a black boy learning about different sexual experiences. It describes several graphic sexual situations, including two boys performing sexual acts on each other.
In response, the Defense of Freedom Institute, a conservative think tank, sent a letter to Mr. Biden’s OCR saying the agency sought to “blunt the input of parents in schools.”
“DFI is extremely concerned that this agreement represents nothing less than a new, nationwide template that OCR will use to intimidate parents in their efforts to prevent their children from gaining access to sexually explicit material in school libraries,” the organization wrote.
In the agreement, the school district was bound to post “notice that any student who feels impacted by the environment surrounding the removal of books” can contact the district for support.
The district pledged to “take action” against anyone creating a hostile environment based on Title IX, according to the agreement.
In Texas, one district was similarly targeted by the OCR.
The OCR launched an investigation into Granbury Independent School District (ISD) in Texas in December for removing sexualized content from school libraries, including LGBT-themed sexual content.
Red State Library Laws
The matter stands to become more legally entangled in states that passed legislation banning sexually explicit or pornographic books from schools.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed hard-fought GOP-backed legislation on June 12 to restrict sexually explicit books from public schools in his state.
The Texas law, House Bill 900, was dubbed the Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act or Reader Act. The push to adopt it was led by state Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican, along with parents and conservative activist groups throughout the Lone Star State.
The measure regulates library books for Texas schools in two ways.
One provision requires the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to develop mandatory material standards by January 1, 2024, for approval by the State Board of Education. The new system is to be fully functional by September 2024.
The other makes book vendors that sell to school libraries responsible for following the new material standards. They'll be required to rate the books based on specific criteria.
Patterson said state lawmakers relied upon federal law and Supreme Court precedence when drafting the legislation.
His efforts to pass HB 900 came after months of helping parents fight school districts in North Texas to remove explicit library books, such as “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” That book portrays a young girl protesting and crying as a boy forces her to perform a sex act.
“I’m not surprised the president’s handlers have him defending groomers, but they should know Texas will fight with everything we have to stop them,” Patterson told The Epoch Times.
