Danica Davidson
August 25, 2023 
KHOU 11, a CBS-affiliated news station in Houston, has been investigating book bans in the area and believes, based on its research, that the Klein Independent School District is banning books while trying to make it look otherwise.
Libraries are always going to get rid of some books — they might be damaged, they might be duplicates, they might not ever be checked out and are just taking up space, etc. Publicly, Klein ISD has only acknowledged taking away one book in two years. However, when looking at the 3,000 books removed from district high school libraries since 2020, KHOU discovered a number (though not the majority) don’t meet the criteria of reasons like damage, duplication or not being checked out. Instead, they’re books that parents have complained about or have been banned elsewhere, and they have then mysteriously disappeared from the shelves at Klein ISD.
According to KHOU, volumes from the manga series Assassination Classroom, Black Butler and Soul Eater are among the titles that mysteriously vanished. All three of them have been banned in other Texas districts. No reason was listed by Klein ISD for their removal.
Assassination Classroom has also faced bans in other states, including Florida. A local librarian there defended Assassination Classroom, saying, “I don’t really understand why people are complaining about it, to be honest. I watched the anime and read some of them, too. Their teacher is an alien that’s going to destroy the world and the teacher is an octopus. That’s just goofy.”
Besides the manga titles, books dealing with rape, being gay, white nationalism, and Roe v. Wade have been pulled from Klein ISD.
“I beg you to remove these books. You should be sickened that they are in our school libraries,” one parent remarked in a meeting.
Another parent argued at a different meeting, “What we do not need is folks complaining about books they never read.”
The school district gave this comment to KHOU, while arguing they still had a large amount of books available:
“We regularly review our resources for alignment with state law, educational standards, and to ensure all instructional materials are age-appropriate and do not contain sexually explicit material. We will not compromise on our commitment to providing our students high-quality, developmentally appropriate instruction.”
Source: KHOU
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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