Austin students hold reading event at Texas Capitol to protest book bans
About 60 Austin-area students marched into the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday wearing white and red T-shirts. Led by their Freedom School summer principals, they stood in a large circle and sat with picture books such as “Malala’s Magic Pencil” and “Brick by Brick.”
After some excited chatter, the students begin their “drop everything and read” time.
The children, ranging from elementary school students to high school students, visited the Capitol as part of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom Schools summer program for a day of action to advocate for their freedom to read books amid state and federal debates about the adequacy of classroom materials in schools.
The Freedom Schools program aims to make up for learning loss during summer vacation by bridging the gaps during the months-long school break through reading, science and art. This year, the program’s focus was on book bans in academic settings, said Michelle Castillo, deputy director of the Children’s Defense Fund Texas, a nonprofit that runs the summer program.
After the students finished reading, they read poems and essays – all on the topic of reading freedom.
Gloria Meyr, a second-grader at McCallum High School, thought it was cool that students had the opportunity to participate in civic action at the State Capitol. Hosting the group’s reading event in the Rotunda made her feel like her voice was being heard, Meyr said.
She knows that heads of state and government have discussed removing certain books from school libraries, but she does not like the idea of restricting students’ access to the content, Meyr said.
“The children learn a lot about the past,” she said.
Meyr is a teaching assistant in the Freedom School summer program. She reads to students and helps with other program activities.
“I know some of them from last year and their reading skills have improved a lot,” said Meyr, who also volunteered last year. “It’s kind of weird, but you feel like their mother because you’ve seen them grow so much.”
The Freedom Schools program chose the theme of “banned books” this year because there is currently a debate at the state and federal level about what types of books should be removed from school libraries, Castillo said.
School districts in the greater Austin area are also caught up in these highly politicized discussions. Earlier this year, the Lake Travis school board decided to remove “The Haters” from the school library but keep “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” on the shelves after reviewing a complaint from parents that the books contained sexually explicit content.
The state is currently embroiled in litigation over the READER Act, a 2023 Texas law that would ban sexually explicit material from school libraries and require booksellers to rate books based on their obscenity.
A group of industry agencies and companies, including Austin-based BookPeople, sued the state over the law last year, calling it vague and accusing it of imposing unreasonable and costly burdens on businesses.
Supporters of the law insist it is only aimed at removing “inappropriate” content from school libraries. But opponents of the READER Act say the law’s ambiguous language also covers books about minority and LGBTQ+ topics.
Parts of the law that apply to the valuation of suppliers’ ledgers have been put on hold after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s preliminary injunction while the case works its way through the legal system.
“Not all of the books students read in Freedom Schools are off the banned list, but some are,” says Lizzie Cain Clark, executive director of Welcome Table, the local sponsor of the Freedom Schools program.
“Scientists are deeply engaged with stories that are meaningful to them,” said Cain Clark. “They build their own confidence.”
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