AUSTIN, Texas — As the topic of book bans brings up controversial conversations across the country, a Central Texas library is hoping to give teens an outlet to discuss banned books and maybe make some money.
The Austin Public Library started “Save the Books Social” as a place for Texas teens to meet up virtually and discuss how they can get involved in fighting book bans.
The main purpose of the group is to create a “network of Texas teens who are taking a stand to ‘save the books!’ and support the freedom to read across Texas,” according to the library’s website.
The library will even pay up to five teens, ages 13-18, a stipend of $1,000 to become teen leaders for the program. The commitment is from April to August, and the teen leaders would have to attend monthly virtual planning meetings to select topics, speakers and activities for the virtual meetups. The deadline to apply is March 30.
The network was formed with the support of the Library Foundation, Children’s Defense Fund and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, as well as BookPeople, which has been no stranger to fighting book bans.
The Austin-based bookstore was part of a coalition that sued the state last July over its law, the Readers Act, requiring school book vendors to issue “sexual-content ratings” for all library materials.
A U.S. District Court judge issued an injunction, preventing the rating system from taking effect in September, which Texas appealed. In January, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court’s opinion saying the statute likely violates the First Amendment.
“Plaintiffs have an interest in selling books without being coerced to speak the State’s preferred message—the ratings,” the opinion said.
And book bans haven’t just been at the state level. For some Central Texas teens, they hit closer to home.
The Lake Travis ISD school board recently discussed removing two young adult novels from the district’s libraries – “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and “The Haters.” The board voted to keep the former and remove the latter from its shelves.
Another Austin-area school district that’s had a national spotlight on it is Leander ISD because of one student club, the Vandegrift High School Banned Book Club.
Ella Scott, who is the co-founder, made national news after she created the club to “help students voice their opinions on the book censorship happening in our district,” according to its website.
The club reads books that have been banned by Leander ISD, and they give statements as to why the books should be in their classrooms.
Proponents argue that the books are not banned; rather, they are being removed from schools in order to protect children from harmful materials.
Scott was interviewed by the ACLU about starting a banned book club, and she said it was hard to get the books on their reading list because of the district’s bans. She said they had to create an Amazon wishlist for people to donate books for club members.
Scott told the ACLU that what’s missing from the book ban debates at school board meetings is the opinions of students.
“A lot of adults weren’t asking for student opinions in this book ban debate, but our club is giving it in a place where it wasn’t asked for, and I think it has made a huge difference,” Scott said to the ACLU. “It’s helping a lot of people understand that students do add value in this conversation, and our opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s.”
The next virtual meeting of Save the Books Social is April 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.