The U.S. Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm has launched an investigation into a North Texas school district whose superintendent was secretly recorded ordering librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed library books. The comments, combined with the district’s subsequent decision to remove dozens of library books pending a review, fostered a “pervasively hostile” environment for LGBTQ students, the ACLU wrote in its complaint. Last year, voters in Granbury elected a pair of school board members who campaigned against LGBTQ-affirming school curricula and library books. “These comments, combined with the book removals, really send a message to LGBTQ students in the districts that: ‘You don’t belong here. Lou Whiting, a student at Granbury High School, becomes emotional after speaking against the removal of LGBTQ books at a Granbury school board meeting in March.

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