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Katy Independent School District

524 titles banned · Texas

Banned Books

#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights #Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights A Clash of Kings A Clash of Kings A Clockwork Orange A Clockwork Orange A Guy’s Guide to Sexuality and Sexual Identity in the 21st Century A Guy’s Guide to Sexuality and Sexual Identity in the 21st Century A High Five for Glenn Burke A High Five for Glenn Burke A Hundred Vicious Turns (The Broken Tower Book 1) A Hundred Vicious Turns (The Broken Tower Book 1) A Million Quiet Revolutions A Million Quiet Revolutions A Million to One A Million to One A Queer History of the United States for Young People A Queer History of the United States for Young People A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns A Song Only I Can Hear A Song Only I Can Hear Aces Wild Aces Wild Act Cool Act Cool Airlock Airlock Alex Alex Alex As Well Alex As Well Alice Austen Lived Here Alice Austen Lived Here All Eyes on Us All Eyes on Us All Kinds of Other All Kinds of Other All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories Of Queer Teens Throughout The Ages All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories Of Queer Teens Throughout The Ages All the Bad Apples All the Bad Apples Almost Perfect Almost Perfect An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes Asexual Asexual Beast Beast Beautiful Music for Ugly Children Beautiful Music for Ugly Children Before We Were Blue Before We Were Blue Being Transgender in America Being Transgender in America Beyond Clueless Beyond Clueless Beyond Magenta Beyond Magenta Beyond the Gender Binary Beyond the Gender Binary Birthday Birthday Bleach, Vol. 60 Bleach, Vol. 60 Blood Sport Blood Sport Body and Mind Body and Mind Born Ready Born Ready Both Sides Now Both Sides Now Boy Toy Boy Toy Calvin Calvin Camp QUILTBAG Camp QUILTBAG Can We Achieve Gender Equality? Can We Achieve Gender Equality? Cemetery Boys Cemetery Boys Combat Zone Combat Zone Coming out as transgender Coming out as transgender Confessions of a Teenage Drag King Confessions of a Teenage Drag King Cool for the Summer Cool for the Summer Crank Crank

About Katy ISD

Katy Independent School District is a suburban Houston school district spanning parts of Harris, Fort Bend, and Waller counties. Established in 1919 and serving the city of Katy and the surrounding communities, the district has grown into one of the largest in Texas, with more than 94,000 students enrolled across 78 campuses as of the 2023–24 school year. The Texas Education Agency awarded the district an “A” accountability rating in 2022.

A Record of Book Removals

Katy ISD gained national attention in the early 2020s as one of the most active sites of library book removal in the country. In October 2021, the district pulled Jerry Craft’s New Kid and Class Act from shelves following a parent complaint about critical race theory; both were eventually returned with restricted access. The following February, NBC News reported that books were disappearing “in record numbers” from Texas schools, with Katy ISD identified as a major driver of that trend. Students at Seven Lakes High School organized “FReadom Week,” distributing copies of Maus, Beloved, and other challenged titles to their peers.

In April 2022, the ACLU of Texas sent a letter to the Katy ISD board arguing that the removals violated the First Amendment and Texas’s own constitution and district policies. That fall, the board required parental permission for secondary students to check out books from classroom libraries. In November 2024, the district banned fourteen additional titles, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Gregory Maguire’s Wicked. Student Cameron Samuels also made headlines in 2021 after exposing that the district had blocked LGBTQ+-supportive websites, including those of the Trevor Project.

This district's book removals have drawn news coverage — see reporting from Houston Press for more.