HPISD Pulls ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ from HPHS Library

The HPISD Board of Trustees on July 17 voted 5-2 to remove the book All Boys Aren’t Blue from the Highland Park High School library.

The board overturned the decision of a volunteer committee and pulled the book due to its “educational unsuitability for graphic sexual content harmful to minors.” A review committee of three parents, an administrator and two teachers had voted 6-0 in May to retain the book on library shelves. Another district administrator served as committee facilitator, but did not vote.

The book’s inclusion was challenged by HPISD parents Austin and Michelle Hopper, who appealed the committee’s decision.

“Ultimately, I think this is a straightforward issue,” Austin Hopper told the board. “All Boys Aren’t Blue is pervasively vulgar and educational unsuitable. Period. End of story.” Michelle Hopper said a prayer for protection and strength before reading several graphic passages from the book.

The Hoppers argued that the board was empowered to remove the book by the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Board of Education v. Pico, and compelled to do so by the recently passed House Bill 900. HB 900 prohibits school districts from possessing certain library materials, including those deemed “pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable.”

The Hoppers noted that All Boys Aren’t Blue has been removed from numerous other school districts, including Frisco ISD.

Between July 2021 and June 2023, 48 school districts removed from shelves or restricted access to All Boys Aren’t Blue, according to a study from PEN America. During that time, All Boys Aren’t Blue, a memoir of growing up Black and queer from journalist and activist George M. Johnson, was the third most often removed or restricted title in schools around the country.

Prior to the board’s vote, members asked about the reasoning of the review committee and whether students have checked out the book from the Highland Park High School library, the only district library where it is on shelves.

No students have been assigned to read the book, Deputy Superintendent Shorr Heathcote told the board. The book has not been checked out by any students since it was placed on shelves in October 2020. Heathcote said that, under district policy, parents are able to restrict their children from checking out books that they deem inappropriate.

Several board members said they believed that the book was not suitable for teenagers. “I think having read the book and serving in the role that we serve, we have an obligation to act in the best interest of HPISD students,” board member Bryce Benson said. “And I found the book to be educationally unsuitable and age inappropriate.” 

“Having read the book in its entirety myself, I do find the graphic, rather lengthy descriptions of sexual acts to be age inappropriate for minors under the age of 18,” board member Ellen Lee said. “And therefore, this material is educationally unsuitable on our campuses.” She added that there is a distinction between school libraries and public libraries, where students could still access the book.

Board member Jae Ellis said that retaining this and other books in the library enables students to better understand the experiences of others different from themselves. He appealed to the board to trust the policy it worked to develop last year and the decision of the review committee. Ellis noted that board policy protects parents who do not want their students to access the book.

“Once out of every seven meetings, I get a chance to open the meeting with a prayer,” he said. “And I always open that prayer praying that all seven of us will see things from the perspective of others, especially those who don’t believe as we do.”

A motion to restrict access to the book to students aged 18 and over failed before the vote. Board members Benson, Lee, Blythe Koch, and Pete Flowers voted with President Maryjane Bonfield to remove the book. Ellis and Board member Doug Woodward were opposed.