Trustees amend Fort Bend ISD library‑materials policy after public outcry

Trustees on the Fort Bend ISD Board amended the district's library‑materials policy after hours of public comment and board debate, approving the revised language on the policy's protection‑from‑inappropriate‑material section by a 5‑2 vote.

Public comment earlier in the meeting drew more than a dozen speakers urging the Board to preserve student access to library materials and to rely on educators' expertise in selection. The speakers named in the minutes included parents, teachers and students who said proposed edits to Policy EFB could concentrate removal authority and limit access; the Board Clerk's record shows these remarks were delivered during the public‑comment period prior to formal policy debate.

Trustee David Hamilton and Trustee Sonya Jones moved an amendment that struck and replaced the existing "protection from inappropriate material" paragraph with language intended to tie material decisions to state and federal law. The amendment's substitute paragraph—entered into the record by motion—states in part: "the district shall comply with state and federal laws governing student access to materials (see policy EFB Legal) and the district will not acquire or maintain materials that are pervasively vulgar, educationally unsuitable, obscene and not protected by the First Amendment, or that promote sexual activity among minors, or that contain graphic images or explicit descriptions of sex acts or simulations of such acts, including graphic depictions or descriptions of the touching of genitalia for the purpose of sexual arousal." The amendment carried 5‑2 on the board floor.

Board members who voted in favor said the revised wording clarified legal standards the district must follow; those opposed said the changes still risked narrowing students' access and expressed concern about process. The minutes record the final vote as "ORIGINAL AMENDED MOTION CARRIES, 5‑2. Yea: Tassin, Garcia, Hamilton, Schoof, Jones. Nay: Hanan and Gilliam." Several public commenters who had asked the Board to reject the proposed revisions were listed in the record and remain on the public comment record.

The action resolves the immediate policy amendment the Board had placed on its agenda (Item 10D(1‑3)); the district packet and the board motion direct administration to implement the revised local policy language and to proceed consistent with state and federal law.