Everything is bigger in Texas, including the f*ck-ups. Governor Greg Abbott’s administration has caused a humanitarian crisis and the Mexico/Texas border and heat-related deaths of working Texans. Rather than deal with those pressing issues, the administration has decided to focus its Eye-of-Sauron-like attention on gutting school libraries in order to convert them into disciplinary halls.
What the F*** is a DISCIPLINARY HALL?
I thought discipline in schools (i.e. detentions) was done in classrooms? I didn’t realize that educators needed a LIBRARY-SIZED WING of space in order to punish children. Isn’t depriving them of books punishment enough? No? I guess we gotta provide them with on-campus jails or whatever the hell a disciplinary hall is supposed to be?
According to ABC 13, the new warden—I mean Houston Independent School District superintendent Mike Miles—recently announced that students at dozens of schools across the district will be returning from summer vacation to find their libraries converted into disciplinary halls. Meanwhile, librarian and media specialist positions at 28 Houston schools will be overhauled under his reform program, New Education System (NES). I’m sorry, but the only NES I recognize is the Nintendo Entertainment System, not this horseshit. 57 additional schools in the area are soon to be opted into the NES system but are awaiting approval. Approval from Satan I assume, who no doubt feels like we’re doing a better job creating hell on Earth than he is creating hell in actual hell.
“We understand the significance of certain programs associated with libraries and will strive to maintain those valuable offerings,” said Mills in a statement. Under his administration, I’m guessing that means writing “LIEBERRY” on a piece of duct tape and sticking it on the side of a dumpster full of books behind the school.
The move is a complete about-face from the direction that Miles’ predecessor, Millard House II intended for the education system to follow. Under House’s administration, he aimed to put a librarian at every school in Texas. Miles said the decision to gut the library system was spurred on by his efforts towards “prioritizing resources to meet specific outcomes, including closing the achievement gap, raising student proficiency, and preparing kids for the future.” as if reading books DIDN’T ALREADY HELP WITH THOSE THINGS.
Naturally, Houston-area parents are furious, as are educators and education advocates.
Deborah Hall, who co-founded the new Students Need Libraries organization, spent around 40 years working in Houston schools. She was equally appalled by the decision, telling ABC 13, “I just couldn’t imagine that it could happen so quickly. I don’t understand why this current administration doesn’t see the value of libraries and what they do for literacy and reading.”
“Libraries are much more than just books. It’s about helping match the reader to the right book at the right time. By talking to the student, you can find a direction to meet their needs,” Hall continued.
What the hell are disciplinary halls anyway?
So what are these disciplinary halls? They are now rooms where students who misbehave will sent to watch lessons on Zoom (because that went well during the pandemic) or work alone or in small groups on different lessons. On top of all of this, books will remain on the shelves in these now-converted library spaces, but students won’t be able to access them during prison hours.
“Libraries will be available to students who are dropped off at school before classes begin, or after school before they go home,” according to a statement from the Houston ISD. “Depending on each campus’ needs, some library spaces may be repurposed into team centers, which are designed for students to continue working, individually or in teams, throughout the school day.”
To make matters worse, the conversion of school libraries into “disciplinary halls” makes it that much easier for the education system to do away with books it wants to ban for sociopolitical reasons. Books by authors of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as books that paint America’s history in a less than stellar light will face increased risk of removal.
Under Mike Mills’s direction, students’ educational journeys will begin with them wandering in an educational forest of ignorance and end in them falling off an educational cliff. According to the ACLU’s writing on the school-to-prison pipeline—which is the tendency for primarily lower-income students and students of color to face disproportionate disciplinary action in schools that puts them on track for incarceration—the pipeline begins with a lack of resources. “Second-rate education environments” increase the levels of dropouts in schools, which in turn leads to an increased “risk of court involvement.” If a school without an adequate library system doesn’t qualify as a “second-rate education environment,” I don’t know what does.
(featured image: xavierarnau/Trifonenko/Getty Images)
