GRAPEVINE, Texas — For the first time since the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board voted to institute a new 36-page policy that bans the teaching of critical race theory and implements a strict review process for library books, the board’s vice president discussed the decision.
The policy also works against promoting, requiring or encouraging the use of pronouns not aligned with the gender assigned at birth. And it requires people to use bathrooms designated for a person’s birth gender.
School Board Vice President Shannon Braun joined Y’all-itics and Inside Texas Politics and told us what the board did was amazing because they gave the keys back to the parents.
And Braun says many things won’t change because all they did was put the policy on paper, so everyone knows the rules.
“The point was just to define things so that there’s no gray, that people know what we’re supposed to do and how we’re going to operate,” Braun said.
When the board recently passed this policy, nearly 200 public speakers showed up for a room that only seats 55. The board’s decision was 4-3.
And Braun stresses all they did was follow state law.
“What we just passed was the law. It’s already the law. So, again, anybody who just voted against that just voted against the law. That’s actually the problem,” said Braun. “You’ve got people that teach what they want to teach. Do what they want to do. Promote what they want to promote.”
To read more about the GCISD board’s decision and why Braun thinks some folks might be breaking the law, listen to the latest episode of Y’all-itics: Texas book bans: Keller, GCISD leaders take questions | wfaa.com