Texas students slam officials for book ban push

When a Texas school board moved to ban library books, these students clapped back ...

Transcript

00:00Someone had said that a lot of these books are being banned because the youth find them disturbing.

00:04I have never, in my experience, read a library book that I've been disturbed, that has really bothered me.

00:10And if I have, I would have just closed it and put it away.

00:25I want to start this out simple.

00:27The job of the superintendent and the school board is to not only protect the students in this district,

00:32but to make them feel like they have a place in this community.

00:34But I got to tell you, from what I'm seeing so far, you are failing at your job.

00:38I am queer, I am brown, and I'm very proud of that.

00:41And I am well aware of the censorship that has happened to my people over the centuries.

00:46I'm well aware of this, and I think it is horrible.

00:50And I don't think that little children should be shocked or disgusted by our identities.

00:56An analysis of the 850 book list found the following likely reasons for inclusion.

01:0160% because of LGBTQ+, 8% because of race and racism,

01:0613% because of sexual education, something that is not taught in all Texas schools.

01:11Mind you, these books are educational, not pornographic.

01:14There were books, one was called I'm Pregnant, Now What Do I Do? for teen pregnancy,

01:18sexual education, which we don't have at the high school.

01:21I'm not going to sit here and talk about the complete slippery slope that book banning leads to,

01:25because I learned from a book that I checked out from my school's library

01:29that I don't need to resort to logical fallacy to make a point.

01:32I'm simply going to say that no government, and public school is an extension of government,

01:37has ever banned books and banned information from its public and been remembered in history

01:41as the good guys.

01:42I think it's disgusting that even in 2022,

01:45we still have to have these discussions about censorship.

01:47I'm enraged that these harmless books are being attacked, and I'm not alone on this.

01:51I created a petition on Friday morning to allow other students and members of

01:54this community to have a voice where they may not be heard elsewhere.

01:58As of 3 p.m. today, we have 654 signatures with lots of comments from supporters.

02:03I am in the top 3% of my class.

02:06I'm on track to graduate with a multiplier in my degree and with distinction,

02:12and I don't say any of this to sit here and talk about myself or to brag,

02:15but I simply want to emphasize to y'all who it is that is upset about this book ban,

02:20and it's not just delinquents who want to read smut.

02:22It's honor students who want access to the full extent of their education.

02:26This constant need to control youth and their development

02:28shows a systematic problem within this school system.

02:32So many histories, such as those as LGBTQ plus people,

02:35indigenous people, and that of the true history

02:39of our country will be erased if this book ban falls through.