Here at Texas Freedom to Read Project we often feel disappointed and dismayed at the censorship attempts we see across the state, but we rarely feel surprised. However, this week, we learned about an incident that floored us. Thanks to the work of a concerned citizen, we discovered that the Montgomery County Citizens Review Committee (completely void of librarians) has ordered a juvenile nonfiction book- that documents American history from the perspective of the Wampanoag tribe-to be moved from the Juvenile Nonfiction Collection to the Fiction Collection of the Montgomery County Memorial Public Library.

Guest Post By Teresa Kenney

The Montgomery County Commissioners’ Court is meeting on the morning of Tuesday, October 8 and on the agenda is a request to revisit the Library Reconsideration Materials Policy. We will once again be in attendance to speak out against the policy—which gives the power of book censorship to five commissioner-court-appointed citizens without librarian oversight or the opportunity for citizen discussion.

If you are able to attend to speak out or show support, we welcome your participation. The court meets at 9:30 a.m. in the Alan B. Sadler Commissioners Court Building, 501 North Thompson, 4th Floor, Suite 402 in Conroe.

Those driving this seemingly relentless wave of censorship in Texas defend their actions by claiming restricting and removing books in K-12 public schools is not “a book ban,” but rather necessary to “protect children from obscene and harmful materials” which they dub “pornography.” They claim “No books are being banned. Anyone can still check these books out from their public library. These books just do not belong in schools.” Besides the fact that many of the books they target are not even close to “obscene” or “pornographic,” they are straight up lying.

The Montgomery County Commissioners Court is proposing and voting on a new Reconsideration of Library Materials Policy on March 26, 2024. This proposed policy would strip librarians at the Montgomery County Memorial Library System of their voice—and the community of the librarians’ knowledge and expertise. Moreover, it gives the power to five, commissioner-appointed citizens to dictate which children’s, young adult and parenting books can remain on the library’s shelves.

In the summer of 2021, several citizens in Llano county approached the recently promoted and unqualified public library system director about some books.  Their collective concern was that books such as Freddie the Farting Snowman by Jane Bexley and I Need a New Butt by Dawn McMillan were “inappropriate.”