Focus at Four: Texas bookstores sue state over ‘book ratings’ law
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – House Bill 900 is a new law that will now require book vendors to regulate content based on references to sexually explicit material.
The law, set to take affect on Sept. 1, has Charley Rejsek, the CEO of the largest independent book store in Texas, concerned about the ability for her book store and others to comply.
“It’s asking us to read and rate all of the books that are still in circulation at public schools around Texas. And we’ve been in business for 53 years, which is amazing. But we do not have records from the past 53 years of books that we’ve sold to schools,” said Rejsek.
The bill lacks funds, which would mean sorting through and reading all those books would be on the store’s dime.
“We sell books. We don’t get paid to read books,” said Rejsek. “Without any kind of funding to be able to read these books, it just there’s no clear path forward to be able to do this and also be able to stay in business.”
The Book People CEO says the process for selling books is simple: schools place their order, and her bookstore fills the request.
“We don’t ask people why they’re buying books,” Rejsek said, “We literally just do not have any idea of what books that we sell end up in schools.”
Due to the vague language of the law and bookstores’ inability to fulfill all the requirements, Book People and Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston are currently suing the state of Texas.
“It would be like asking every single movie theater to rate every movie that it shows. And so you could have one theater rate, something rated R and then a theater down the street rate something PG-13. And so this turns us into competitors in a different way, when we’re really all trying to serve the schools in the same way.”
