Texas Senator Charles Perry attended the Lubbock ISD school board meeting and told members that if the district fails to remove obscene, vulgar and derogatory books from the school libraries, it will be addressed by the Texas Legislature.
Superintendent Kathy Rollo said the book Perry referred to was not something she would want her own child to read, but she noted it is against the law for her to remove books, stating that the school district followed the law exactly.
Rollo said when books are ordered in bundles, sometimes objectionable ones get included, and some books stay because they were approved under previous versions of state law.
Lubbock ISD created an advisory committee which reviews books and votes on acceptability of the content. Perry noted the district followed the statutes but said they made it difficult to find out what books are on the library shelves - and to have one removed. He also addressed results over process, saying the book in question was put back on the shelf through the process, followed by a reconsideration form, after which the board voted to keep it.
The book in question was “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” by Jesse Andrews, which, T h e American Libraries Magazine reported as the seventh most challenged book on library shelves in 2024, with concern that it was “sexually explicit and degrading to women.”
Perry plans to meet with district officials in the coming weeks.