Nearly a year after Cy-Fair Independent School District (CFISD) omitted more than a dozen chapters from our textbooks, the discourse continues over the future of the school district.
As a student in Texas, I’ve lived through the drastic changes that have come over the last few years. From removing librarians on campuses to requiring teachers to cut personal pronouns from their email, the quiet attacks on personal expression and free speech have become more apparent throughout the district. It’s hard to reconcile that a school district once known for welcoming students of all backgrounds and encouraging free thought now seems to be moving in a direction that feels more restrictive than even broader state trends. But here we are, and I’m scared. I’m scared of what’s being lost in our classrooms: critical thinking, open dialogue, and the freedom to be ourselves.
Last May, the CFISD board of trustees voted to strip out 13 chapters from state-approved textbooks, chapters that covered evolution, climate change, vaccines, identity, and diversity. Topics that exist in the real world. Topics we need to understand to be responsible citizens, scientists, and human beings. While some of the school board trustees argue that emphasizing issues like race and identity “seeds hate” and makes students feel hopeless about their future, history has proven time and time again that ignorance fuels division and misunderstanding. Students deserve the truth—not sanitized or politicized—because we’re the ones inheriting these crises.
