Katy ISD Reviewing Teen Novel For Profanity, Race Insensitivity

KATY, TX — The Katy Independent School District has pulled a book from its school libraries for review due to profanity and racially insensitive material.

The book, “The Hate U Give,” written by Angie Thomas, addresses the issues of police brutality and racism from the modern perspective and is aimed at students in junior high and high school.

The is written from the perspective of a 16-year old girl who witnesses her friend, an unarmed black teen, shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop.

Katy ISD Superintendent Lance Hindt said the district had received a complaint during a November Katy ISD school board about profanity and racially insensitive language, and that the book had been removed for review, the Houston Chronicle reported.

“A review of the book in question shows it to include pervasive vulgarity and racially insensitive language," Hindt said in a statement. "As such, the book has been removed pending further review based solely on its pervasive vulgarity and not its substantive content or the viewpoint expressed."

Hindt added that the removal of the book was not a ban, as many initially reported.

Meanwhile, news of the books removal ignited a social media firestorm from fans of the novel, as well as the books author who lamented in a Tweet that she was saddened to hear about the move to remove the book, and empowered to continue telling these stories, KTRK reported.

District administrators are currently reviewing the book.

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