Bonnie Wallace - Activist Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, now six point twenty one. As I mentioned, there's
a push for stricter oversight of school library content in
Texas as well, and in fact, there's a new bill,
House Built one eighty three by state Representative Jared Patterson,
is currently being a waiting hearing I guess I should say,
and joining us now to tell us all about it.

(00:20):
As Bonnie Wallace, he's an activists helping to push for
parental rights in school libraries.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Bonnie, good morning, Good morning, Bob, thanks for having me
on this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Pleasure, thank you for being here. Tell us about House
Bill one eighty three.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
House Built one eighty three is very simple, common sense
solution to the book problems that we've been finding all
across Texas. Keep in mind there's over twelve hundred school
districts in Texas, so in order to challenge books, technically
you have to go to each school board and file
a challenge. A lot of the school boards off you skate,

(00:57):
they take forever, they don't know what to do, or
they want to keep doing what they're doing, some of
both probably, but how still, one eighty three takes challenges
for inappropriate library material to the State Board of Education.
So me as a taxpayer. I could go to the
state Board of Education and show them an inappropriate book,

(01:20):
submit a challenge, and they will review the book and
come up with the ruling on it. If they decide
that book is inappropriate for minors in Texas public schools,
that book would be removed from every public school campus
in Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Crazy, that would be That would be a fantastic thing
to have happen. Here's the question I'm curious about timing, Bonnie.
In other words, are we talking about things that parents
have found out that are already being shown to their kids,
books that are being required of their kids, and then
you find out and now we go, oh, I don't
like this. I want to go and have this declared
inappropriate at the legislature or at the level I should say,

(02:01):
or is it do they have to submit a list
of books that they want to use and get kind
of pre approval because you don't want to close the
barn door after the horse is already out right.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well and the horse has already left the barn. I mean,
I have books that I have found in Texas public
schools that talk about sex with animals, sex with dead bodies.
We've got one that has seventy five QR codes in
the book. These books that I'm talking about, by the way,
for twelve year olds and up. And so, these QR

(02:32):
codes take you to sex videos, to plan parenthood. They
take you to an app that tells you where the
nearest orgy is. I have a book that I discovered recently,
how to kill your diabetic parents in an indetectable manner
so you can get away with murder.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I've got wait, wait, wait, wait, did I hear you say?
These are books that are already available to kids in
Texas libraries.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
All across Texas, in so many public schools, hundreds And
what has.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Happened with some of those most degregious examples, like the
one you're talking about about how to kill your diabetic parent.
I'd never heard of this before. I would have thought
this would be something that would make national news. What
has been done about this?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, we take the books to the school board and
we read them at school board meetings. I've been to
more than one hundred school board meetings in Texas. Most
of the books still sit in the high school or
middle school libraries because they are refusing to move them.
Most of them out of fear they think they're going
to get sued. And because the left, you know, they

(03:41):
scream very loudly and very they're just full of rage
and hate, I guess, And so they're menacing the school
districts not to do anything. But I say, a saving
a child's mind is more valuable than fear of a lawsuit. Right.
We need to have fear of God, not of a lawsuit.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Amen. And so Hospital one to eighty three, if it
becomes law, will kind of change that. You don't go
to these cowardly school boards with these books. You go
right to the state Board of Education. Is that how
that would work?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yes, sir, And the details are still being worked out.
There is a committee substitute that they're working on now
for timing. Tom Maynard is my state Board of Education member.
I'm in District ten, and he asked me to review this,
you know, draft bill a few months ago. I just

(04:38):
I love it. It's not perfect. It does not have an
enforcement mechanism. So therefore, if some schools say, well, I'm
not taking those books out, you know, the kids need
them or whatever their rationale is, if they don't comply,
there's no enforcement mechanism. So we're working on an appropriate mechanism.
I've suggested too. Want be a ten thousand dollars fine.

(05:00):
Schools are more worried about money, But the other one
it could be and or ten thousand dollars fine and
or a letter grade penalty. So a lot of campuses
and districts they worry about their letter grades. They want
that aid campus, tode campus, and a full letter grade penalty.
If books are discovered that the SBOE has already mandated

(05:23):
be removed.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
So may I may I choose C in this multiple
choice test, which means both amb I would like both yeah, yeah,
give them the letter grade penalty and the fine. Bonnie
Wallace activist supporting hospital one eighty three. I really appreciate
you bringing this to our attention, and I certainly hope
you get those enforcement mechanisms added to the bill before

(05:44):
it goes up. Thank you so much of the time
in letting us know and for fighting for kids.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, sir, absolutely