It feels likeSuper Tuesdaywas just last Tuesday, but here we are, facing yet another election day in North Texas. Perhaps the biggest election headlines in Dallas over the past few weekshave involved the $1.25 billion bond package, and for good reason. The bond money is set to go towards streets and transportation, parks, public safety, economic development and more — all topics of interest to the public.
But what about the many other items on the ballots across North Texas? There are plenty of school board positions up for grabs, including ones in districts where book banning has been a prevalent debate topic.
Similar to the political and ideological battles over school vouchers, gun safety and whether a teacher can say “gay,” the subject matter of books in classrooms and school libraries has raged with increasing intensity over the past couple of years. Activist groups such as Moms for Liberty, a conservative outfit, are taking aim at books with LGBTQ themes as well as many stories that look deeply into issues of race and ethnicity. Any mentions of sex, regardless of context, also sit in the crosshairs of these types of groups.
Patriot Mobile, the so-called “conservative cell-phone and wireless company,” funded the campaigns of several Tarrant County school board candidates over the past couple of years. And that effort paid off in victories for a handful of candidates very much in favor of removing books they deem problematic.
But not all North Texas school boards have been overtaken by well-funded pro-censorship candidates. Larger, urban school districts, including Dallas ISD, don’t typically see nearly as many candidates with book-banning tendencies, and in 2023, a candidate for the Plano ISD Board of Trustees, Lydia Ortega, lost her bid after claiming that “the drug of pornography” is more dangerous in today’s schools than fentanyl or guns.
Not that Plano is immune to the threats of those parents and activists seeking to remove a diverse range of age-appropriate books from school shelves. In November, members of Citizens Defending Freedom, another conservative group that “defends liberty,” campaigned for books they deem objectionable to be removed from school libraries.
At the time, a rep from the Plano ISD told the Observer that the titles the district removed following the contentious November board of trustees meeting were not pulled due to the activists’ complaints at the meeting. But the fact remains that for the most part, the books that were removed were ones that had been singled out by the people who spoke at that meeting and a previous one.
Frank Strong, an Austin-area teacher who writes the Anger and Clarity Substack dedicated to covering an array of developments within the state’s public education system in Texas, is also co-director of the nonprofit Texas Freedom to Read Project. He recently produced the Book-Loving Texan’s Guide to the May 2024 School Board Election, a comprehensive look at Texas school board races involving candidates with pro-censorship views and connections to groups like Moms for Liberty and the aforementioned Citizens Defending Freedom.
This year, he’s noted a number of North Texas board seats up for grabs where at least one of the candidates fits the book-banner bill. The school districts for Arlington, Denton, Frisco, Grapevine-Colleyville and Keller, according to Strong’s research, have races with candidates who are “either members of pro-censorship groups… or have the support of such groups.”
In the Guide’s introduction, Strong explains part of the motivation for his research.
“I’m a teacher in Austin, and I’m forbidden by law from assigning any essay or poem from the Pulitzer Prize-winning The 1619 Project, even as a balanced collection of perspectives on race in the U.S.,” Strong wrote. “Why? I’d argue it’s a direct result of what has happened in school board meetings and elections since 2021.”
Here’s a look at some of the contested North Texas school board races where the subject matter and availability of school library books are prominent topics.
Place 3: Larry Mike, Kathi Arocha, April Williams Moore
Strong’s Guide reports that Arocha is a member of social media accounts for groups, including Citizens Defending Freedom, that are pro-book censorship. The report also highlights some of her personal social media posts that articulate what she considers inappropriate for schools, which happen to often be found inside of current library books.
Place 1: Barbara Burns, Debbie ScaggsPlace 2: Sheryl English, Terry A. Senne
Scaggs has “taken on the mantle of Denton ISD’s book-banner-in-chief, leading the charge against more than 100 books,” Strong writes in the Guide. Books that Scaggs has challenged include Jacob’s New Dress and Jacob’s Room to Choose, a pair of books that Strong notes were retained by the district, at least in part, due to neither book having sexual content.
Senne’s official campaign website lays bare her censorship intentions. Using many of the same talking points echoed by conservative activists at many area school board meetings, Senne’s website reads:
- Schools are indoctrinating our children rather than protecting them.
- Sexualization of our children appears to be a primary focus nowadays.
- Schools have long since left the traditional Godly values and principles upon which our country was founded.
Place 7: Keith Maddox, Melanie Barrios-Jones
The Guide is quick to note that Barrios-Jones has the look, to a certain extent, of a non-offensive candidate, But a closer examination of her social media profiles highlights her pro-book banning leanings. Similar to others mentioned here, Barrios-Jones reportedly is connected to Citizens Defending Freedom.
Place 1: Cynthia Rial Graham, Shannon BraunPlace 2: Dalia Begin, Michael Alfred
There aren’t many school districts in Texas where the topic of library books and censorship is as hot as in the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. Check out the NBC News investigative podcast Grapevine for plenty of insight into how that came to be. Strong’s research says that current board president Braun has long aligned herself with Patriot Mobile and has vocally fought what she says is “social indoctrination” and “racial and sexual identity politics” in classrooms.
Alfred has stayed closely aligned with Braun during his campaign, while also using his website to proffer the standard “parental rights” lingo that is common among candidates ready to take books off of shelves for a variety of reasons.
Place 6:Charles Randklev, Adrienne SullivanPlace 7:DaLana Barsanti, Dixie Davis, Heather Washington
The Guide explains that Randklev, the current board president, has been at the center of the recent controversy surrounding Keller High School’s controversial back-and-forth decisions regarding a production of LGBTQ drama The Laramie Project, while also eliminating half of the district’s librarian jobs. According to Strong, Randklev has “spearheaded the district’s attack on books” by helping to usher in one of state’s toughest library policies.
For Place 7, Barsanti and Washington are each connected to Moms for Liberty as well as vocal presences at past board meetings, advocating for book censorship.