Editor’s Note: This article contains explicit images found in children’s books. We decided to display these images unedited, since this is how the images are being displayed to children. Most of the images shown are available to jr. high children (possibly younger) in Conroe Independent School District.
Back in 1982, the Island Trees School Board wanted to remove some books from the district’s library because they deemed them inappropriate for an educational setting. However, a group of citizens, including high school student Stephen Pico, wished for the books to remain in the library. They sued the district, stating that their First Amendment rights had been violated, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the years, the case Island Trees School District v. Pico, has become somewhat obscure. However, it typifies arguments currently occurring in school districts across the country, so much so that it is referenced in Texas Education Code 33.021, stating library materials that are pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable should be prohibited in a school district’s collection development policy. The law clearly states that it is the responsibility of Texas school districts to identify and remove sexually explicit and pervasively vulgar materials from the school library collections, but these materials continue to ...
