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Seguin ISD board removes one challenged title after public comment; keeps four others
Summary
After public comment and committee review, the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees voted 7–0 to remove What Girls Are Made Of from district library approval lists while retaining four other challenged titles; speakers urged clearer committee standards and transparency under SB13 and 13 TAC.
The Seguin Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to remove one book from its approved library list after hearing public comment and a challenge-committee report.
Public commenter James Ransdahl told the board he had submitted page citations he said included explicit descriptions of sexual conduct in What Girls Are Made Of and asked trustees to apply district age-appropriateness standards outlined in the Texas Administrative Code. Susan A. Lee, a former early-childhood teacher, urged removal of sexually explicit materials from school libraries. Lynette Lenox called for transparency in the challenge process and opposed anonymous voting by volunteers, citing SB13’s intent to make book-challenge decisions public.
Ms. Sylvius, who presented the challenge-committee report, said 25 volunteers read the five challenged titles and recommended all remain in the high-school library. Trustees asked for additional context on how committee findings were evaluated against 13 TAC standards and requested checkout-history data to better understand use patterns.
Trustee discussion centered on whether specific passages met district standards for lewd or profanely indecent content, how website references or QR codes in some titles are treated as part of the material, and whether committee procedures give board members adequate time to review challenged texts. One trustee said a policy to provide the titles of challenged books to board members upon submission would address timing concerns.
Following discussion, a motion to approve the committee’s recommendations for Forever the Handmaid’s Tale, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Burned passed 7–0. The board then voted 7–0 to remove What Girls Are Made Of from the approved library list and document that removal as required by district policy.
The board asked staff to add circulation data to future reports and to ensure committee reports explicitly show how cited passages are evaluated under applicable standards. No further action was scheduled beyond the formal removal vote.
