A school district in the Texas panhandle temporarily removed the Bible – and reinstated it soon after – in an effort to comply with a controversial new state law that bans sexually explicit materials in schools.

House Bill 900 – also called the Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources (Reader) Act – took effect in September 2023 and requires library vendors to rate materials for explicit content, inform parents of potentially explicit books and recall materials already in circulation when required. More broadly, the law requires library content to align with state educational standards.

While the bill, sponsored by Representative Jared Patterson, was intended to shield students from obscene content, critics say it could restrict their constitutional freedoms, and the bill has faced legal challenges since before its implementation.

Citing HB900, the full text of the Bible was temporarily banned from Canyon independent school district, which serves 11,000 students across 21 schools in Amarillo and Canyon counties.

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