Alamo Heights ISD parents are voicing anger after the district scrapped a visit by a children’s author whose nonfiction book about the history of glitter and plastic was deemed too radical under Texas’ anti-DEI law.
The cancelation is just the latest disruption prompted by Republican-backed Texas Senate Bill 12, which has wreaked havoc for public education from the elementary school through the university level.
Austin-based writer Chris Barton was invited to speak to 1,600 students at Alamo Heights ISD’s Cambridge and Woodridge elementary schools this month. Although he’d visited the district in 2018 to rave reviews from parents and students, officials put the brakes on this year’s trip after three parents complained about his bookGlitter Everywhere! Where It Came From, Where It’s Found & Where It’s Going.
Barton’s book gives a detailed history of the origins of the sparkly substance, the science behind it and the environmental impact of microplastics. He’s not alone in his concern over microplastics, since studies suggest humans consume the equivalent of one credit card per week of the material, which has infiltrated food and drink supplies globally.
However, those environmental concerns weren’t what got Barton crossways with SB 12. Instead, one sentence in the 52-page book, although historically accurate, triggered concern from Alamo Heights ISD officials.
The sentence is found on page 33, where Barton writes “to signal the welcoming of LGBTQ+ worshippers, some congregations now offer a mix of ashes and purple glitter.”
“My concern is not about this isolated incident,” said Erik Anderson, an Alamo Heights parent whose child was looking forward to meeting Barton. “It is a concern that my child’s education will be repeatedly shaped by a district seeking to go beyond already restrictive legislation.”
Minority rule
In an emailed statement, Alamo Heights ISD confirmed Barton was scheduled to sell and sign five books as part of his presentation.
“Mr. Barton visited in 2018,” department spokeswoman Julie Ann Matonis. “It was a great experience for our students, and we were looking forward to it again this year.”
However, those plans were put on hold after three parents emailed principals at their respective campuses to inquire about the phrase “LGBTQ+” appearing in Glitter Everywhere!, Matonis said. The author hadn’t planned to discuss that book or bring it with him, she added.
“As part of planning coordination, we told Mr. Barton about the relevant TEC 11.005 prohibition, cited above, and explained that we didn’t see any issues with the plan for his visit and asked him to provide assurances he would not refer to gender identity, sexual orientation or his book that has the term ‘LGBTQ+’ on one of the pages, which would be a violation of this new law,” Matonis said. “He refused to agree to those assurances.”
On his website, Barton said even though Glitter Everywhere! wasn’t one of the five books selected by the two elementary schools as part of his planned presentation, he planned to give it a quick mention as an example of how he spurs his research and nonfiction writing.
“I should add, though, that when students have questions about my work, I answer those honestly,” Barton wrote in his retelling of the events involving Alamo Heights ISD. “So, for instance, should students ask during Q+A which is my most recent nonfiction book, or which book of mine required the most research, my reply would be Glitter Everywhere!”
Barton told the Current that to save face and complete his visits to the Alamo Heights schools — one of the key ways authors build sales — he could have avoided any mention of Glitter Everywhere! and declined to acknowledge it during questions. But that would have gone against his principles, which include “not lying to children through omission.”
Out of the hundreds of schools Barton’s visited during his 25 years as an author, he’s never before had a district demand that he not speak about his work. Indeed, he gave a full presentation on Glitter Everywhere! to 400 elementary school students at Granbury ISD last month, ground zero for Texas’ crusade against LGBTQ+ material in school libraries. Yet, not a single parent aired concerns about it.
Although upset about the cancellation, some Alamo Heights ISD parents told the Current understand the district’s position on the matter.
Still, the parents said they were never given an explanation for Barton’s visit being canned. The reason only came to light via his blog post and freedom of information requests filed with the district.
Anderson called the district’s reasoning “absurd.”
“I’d very much understand if an author would not commit to not bringing up LGBTQ+ issues in a talk to elementary school students,” Anderson said. “But to ask an author not to mention that they’ve written a book about glitter, simply because in that book there happens to be a mention of LGBTQ+ individuals?”
Others were more sympathetic to the district’s situation.
“Given the current political environment where universities are losing huge amounts of funding and they’re facing these really costly lawsuits, I feel like [Alamo Heights ISD] acted out of the sense of they didn’t want a lot of upheaval for the staff or the students in case there was some sort of catastrophic response from [Texas Attorney General] Ken Paxton,” said one parent, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution from the district, the state and her employer.
Even so, the same parent is upset about the state’s DEI ban. They also said they’re still trying to figure out whose responsibility it is to “rebel” against the anti-free speech measure signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.
“Is it up to the school to rebel against the state and face these vast consequences for staff and students?” the parent pondered. “We do need to stand up, but how do we do that in a way that does not result in these huge upheavals?”
Academic freedom under attacke
Alamo Heights’ decision to cancel Barton’s visit is only the latest in a slew of alarming stories to emerge since Abbott signed SB 12 into law on Sept. 1.
This week, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement describing Texas A&M University as “not a serious institution” after the school demanded that a philosophy professor remove works by Greek philosopher Plato from his syllabus because they promoted “race and gender ideology.”
Prior to the censorship incident, U.S. News & World Report ranked Texas A&M as the nation’s 51st-best university.
“Censoring Plato is an academic absurdity and a textbook violation of academic freedom,” the AAUP said in its statement. “Barring a foundational philosopher who is a cornerstone of Western thought because his work touches on race or gender is a blatant attempt at thought policing that will not survive legal scrutiny. This is a direct attack on professional integrity and a clear-cut breach of constitutionally protected academic freedom.”
Concerns about academic freedom also about at the University of Texas at Austin, the flagship campus of the UT system and another nationally ranked school.
In a recently survey by campus newspaper the Daily Texan, 60% of the school’s 437 responding faculty members said they have considered leaving the school due to Senate Bill 37. That bill further restricts academic freedom by directing state universities to increase curriculum oversight and restructure their faculty councils.
During a recent New Braunfels stop on his U.S. Senate campaign, State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, cautioned that Texas Republicans’ efforts to keep ideas they don’t like out of schools is already damaging its colleges and universities.
“A lot of our most talented, most qualified faculty members have left the state of Texas,” said Talarico, one the Legislature’s most vocal opponents of book bans and anti-DEI measures. “Many of our colleges want to recruit the best and brightest to come teach here in Texas, and they can’t get them because of this extremism from our state government.”
Even so, the parents at Alamo Heights ISD said they aren’t giving up yet and pulling their kids from the district due to oversteps by Texas lawmakers.
“I’m not leaving,” one parent told the Current. “I feel like Alamo Heights is a really good school district in the sense of kindness and inclusivity. The teachers are great. My children are happy.”
Still, the parent cautioned that parents need to stand up before matters get worse.
“I think we should monitor things happening not just in Texas, but everywhere, and we need to think about ways to push back against these DEI bans. I don’t know what the answer is, but I think about this issue every day.”
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