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Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
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18 Dec, 16 tweets, 8 min read
ICYMI, book banning is now being pushed by county officials in Texas. This week Williamson County commissioners withheld CARES funds from @leanderisd & @roundrockisd based on false allegations about "X-rated" material available. More thoughts & links ahead in thread.
Good start coverage from @mikemarut of @KVUE here, but we need to put a finer point on these issues and get eyes on the situation. Because as with Abbott and Mike Kraus's claims--this is politically motivated & NOT ABOUT THE BOOKS.

kvue.com/video/news/edu…
How do I know? Because districts that DID receive funds--like @GeorgetownISD--also have targeted books like OUT OF DARKNESS available to students... AS THEY SHOULD. These highly vetted & celebrated works of literature serve the needs of students. (See "additional info" below.)
A reminder: in all cases, the books in question are options AVAILABLE to teens, not required course material. The only difference is that the districts denied funds (@leanderisd & @roundrockisd) have struggled with public controversies driven by politicized attacks on books.
And this comes AFTER @leanderisd officially removed 11 books, including OUT OF DARKNESS, from HS book lists and classroom libraries. What is the commissioners' message? You didn't ban ENOUGH books to appease our base, so no $$ for your students.
pen.org/press-release/…
Again: the opposition to the books is NOT ABOUT THE BOOKS. Conservative groups (links to follow) are using this to signal who matters in schools and whose very existence is "controversial"--just like the books under attack. That's a destructive message for marginalized teens.
"Concerned" adults at SB mtgs may have convinced themselves that they are worried about "sexually explicit content," but if that were true, they would be showing up to protest the many more books with sexual content that center white, straight characters. Hmm.
What's really going on, then? Knowingly or not, these parents are mouthpieces for GOP-funded orgs that direct them to harass and exhaust school personnel and attack books like OUT OF DARKNESS for quick wins to mobilize a conservative base. Some examples ahead.
Whoops, that should have been @MikeMarutKVUE--doing some thoughtful coverage of this issue. Thank you, Mike! Please keep at it and bring attention to the inconsistency in funding some districts and not others when all provide access to the books being targeted (as they should).
No Left Turn categorizes books by "trouble" topics:
noleftturn.us/exposing-books/
Texans Wake Up goes a step farther by telling parents exactly what to object to, a letter to use, then "go get 'em!" texanswakeup.com
Moms 4 Liberty & Defending Ed encourage burdensome FOIA requests: defendinged.org/expose/
momsforliberty.org/resources/
(Targeted ISDs say these requests are relentless--& that those making them have the $$ to keep asking--targeting every purchase order, teacher survey, etc.)
Attacks on books & relentless FOIA requests divert resources away from student learning. The values & attitudes of those bringing them do not reflect the community at large. Most folks appreciate their schools are doing & are too busy trying to make ends meet to harass them.
Central Texas: these folks are holding your kids' education hostage. Even if you don't care about your kids' right to read OUT OF DARKNESS or the targeted books, you should care about the harm of these attacks. The endgame here is not the books. It's undermining public ed itself.
And when I say conservatives are "holding your kids' education hostage," this is NOT A METAPHOR. I just got access to this email from commissioner @cynthialong to @leanderisd, & it could be summarized as "Ban Books for Bucks."

It's extortion, plain & simple. Letter from Cynthia Long demanding banning of 11 books from
That should be @CLongTX 👆 Thanks for helping me catch that, @LISDFuss
"Good" news: you (yes, YOU!) can push back. Take 4 minutes to file a complaint against the Williamson County Commission for misuse of CARES Act funds, & spread the word. This concerns EVERY taxpayer, EVERY community member.

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More from @ashleyhopeperez

Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
16 Dec
Hey, @CedarParkPatch, @KUT, and @KVUE: in covering the commissioners’ denial of funds to @LeanderISD & @RoundRockISD over “X-rated” books, you should look at the fact that my book & others are also in libraries of schools in districts that WERE funded.

patch.com/texas/cedar-pa…
A simple library catalog search reveals the inconsistency. All of the districts have books like OUT OF DARKNESS because these highly vetted and celebrated works of literature serve the needs of students.
In all cases, the books in question are options AVAILABLE to readers, not required course material. The only difference is that the targeted districts have struggled with politicized public controversies. Where is the fact checking? We need to hold these officials accountable.
Read 4 tweets
Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
15 Dec
Hey folks, if you're tired of posts about book banning... join the club! But here's a thread on why we can't stop talking about it--and why you should register for this @PENamerica Teach-In TONIGHT, 8-9:30 pm EST. bit.ly/3pN2Kmd
Attacks on youth access to books are not letting up, and in some places, the costs for students are just getting higher. This week, in Central TX county commissioners withheld funds from @LeanderISD & @RoundRockISD in response to false claims of "X-rated" books in their schools.
As the author of one of these allegedly "x-rated" books & a former Texas HS teacher, I know that these claims are NOT based in reading--or even a middle-school understanding of literature. It's shameful political theater, but the harm to students is real.
Read 11 tweets
Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
4 Dec
It is emphatically NOT my responsibility, as a sexual abuse survivor, to educate those who falsely label YA lit "grooming" just because it contains sexual content of some kind. But I'm sick of the slimy implications being wiped like snot over our books. So I will spell this out.
"Grooming" is manipulative, predatory behavior, usually of a minor, with the goal of blurring the lines between appropriate and inappropriate touch or interaction. Why? A disoriented, gaslit, self-blaming target is much less likely to be able to identify, or report, abuse.
It is absurd to say that the mere presence of some sexual content means a book is "grooming" readers. Is the sexual content of the Bible "grooming" readers to be gang raped? to sleep with their fathers? Do TV shows with love-making scenes or song that refer to sex "groom"?
Read 8 tweets
Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
4 Dec
When it comes to school book bans, we need a powerful community response that puts students first and backs up teachers and librarians. That response starts with a clear understanding of what is happening. Here's what I see going on as of 12/4/21.
Attacks on youth access to books in schools often use misleading terms like “pornographic,” “inappropriate,” “controversial,” & “divisive” to describe books by or about non-white or non-dominant people, &/or that address experiences such as sexual assault or police brutality.
The scope of these attacks varies from 1 book to TX State Rep Kraus’s bogus interrogation of school districts about whether 850 allegedly problematic books are in their libraries. (Kraus's list is a sloppy combo of keyword searches like "LGBTQ" & "race.")
Read 29 tweets
Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
27 Nov
Enjoying the solo-travel no-kids-to-wrangle spa vibes at DFW airport and feeling a little thread-y, so here goes some thinking...
I've been thinking about the pattern that's emerged in the most recent chapter of conservatives' relentless efforts to undermine public schools. The pattern is painfully clear, but it doesn't make headlines. We need it to make headlines.
Some of the positions conservatives have latched onto:

1. Demand in-person schooling.
2. Oppose pub health measures to make in-person schooling safer (masks, vax).
3. Oppose anything related to diversity & inclusion
4. Oppose teaching of honest & complete history (anti-CRT).
Read 16 tweets
Ashley Hope Pérez Profile picture
14 Nov
Yes. The term “Porn” has been tactically stripped of meaning to facilitate its weaponization against non-dominant groups. Obvious in which books w sexual content are targeted. We can make the critical distinction. Porn as “sexual explicit content for the purposes of arousal”.
Books like GENDER QUEER or OUT OF DARKNESS include sex for other reasons, such as showing the pain of navigating sexuality from a marginalized identity, illustrating that survivors of sexual abuse can reclaim joy in their bodies, and illustrating what consent (and its absence).
And context matters. Porn literally has no context beyond arousal—titillation is the goal start to finish. Sex, when it appears in lit, is an element in a complex whole that must be examined as such, not condemned bc of passages or screenshots out of context.
Read 4 tweets

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