From Little v. Llano County, decided yesterday by Judge Robert Pitman (W.D. Tex.):
In early July 2021, prior to their appointment to the New Library Board, Defendants Rochelle Wells, Rhonda Schneider, Gay Baskin, and Bonnie Wallace were part of a community group pushing for the removal of children's books that they deemed "inappropriate." For example, these Defendants objected to two series of children's picture books, the "Butt and Fart Books," which depict bodily functions in a humorous manner in cartoon format, because they believed these books were obscene and promoted "grooming" behavior. Defendant Milum, the library system's director, shared the complaints with the Commissioners Court {the municipal entity that controls the Llano County Library System}. Although several commissioners and librarians stated that they saw no problem with the books, Defendants Moss and Cunningham contacted Milum to instruct her to remove the books from the shelves.
By August 5, 2021, Milum informed Cunningham she would be deleting both sets of books from the catalog system. In the following months, other books, such as In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak and It's Perfectly Normal, by Robbie H. Harris, were removed because of similar complaints: that they encouraged "child grooming" and depicted cartoon nudity. There was no recourse for Plaintiffs, or anyone else, to appeal these removals to the library system.
In Fall 2021, Wallace, Schneider, and Wells, as part of their community group, contacted Cunningham to complain about certain books that were in the children's sections or otherwise highly visible, labeling them "pornographic filth." On November 10, 2021, Wallace provided Cunningham with lists, including a list of "dozens" that could be found in the library. The books labeled "pornographic" included books promoting acceptance of LGBTQ views. Other books in Wallace's list of pornographic books [were] about "critical race theory" and related racial themes. In other communications, Defendants refer to them as "CRT and LGBTQ" books. In the email, Wallace advocated for the books to be relocated to the adult section because "[i]t is the only way that [she] could think of to prohibit future censorship of books [she does] agree with."
That same day, Cunningham and Moss ordered Milum, "[a]s action items to be done immediately," to pull books that contained "sexual activity or questionable nudity" from the shelves …. On November 12, 2021, Defendants removed several books on the Bonnie Wallace Spreadsheet from the Llano Library Branch shelves, including, for example, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, and Spinning….
