Keller ISD is removing all challenged books from its schools following a months-long audit of flagged titles on district shelves.

Administrators at Dallas-Fort Worth's Keller ISD announced Tuesday that the district will pull all books challenged within its system—a sweeping action that includes the removal of all variations of the Bible and a graphic novel depicting the life of Anne Frank. The move is a seemingly abrupt course reversal for the district, which began a high-profile and months-long review of challenged works in its schools following a Texas Education Agency investigation into alleged sexual explicit materials found in its curriculum.

The Dallas Morning News' Taila Richman reports that an email sent Tuesday to school principals by Jennifer Price, curriculum director of Keller ISD, relayed a new directive that urged staff to pull all titles flagged for review by day's end regardless of past recommendations made during the review process. 

"I need all books pulled from the library and classroom," Price wrote, per Richman. "More information will be sent regarding action for these books...once this has been completed, please email me a confirmation. We need to ensure this action is taken by the end of today."

The decision comes on the eve of Keller ISD students returning to the classroom, and leaves questions regarding whether administrators will consider past recommendations and deliberations on challenged books, which have been published in detail on the district's site. Keller ISD's book challenge page catalogs the titles, authors and resulting decisions made by staff followed meetings with teachers, staff and the book's challengers.

Among the works formally flagged by the district is "The Bible," which is described generally as "(any variation—King James otherwise)" and whose listed authors are "Men who lived a long time ago—no 1 exact author exist for these books."

Also included is "Anne Frank's Diary (The Graphic Adaption)" by Ari Folman and David Polonsky, which is largely a visual retelling of the Holocaust survivor's famous published diary. Many of the other works cataloged on the site were also featured on a 2021 list of books compiled and disseminated to Texas public school districts by Texas state Rep. Matt Krause. The 16-page document asked educators to confirm whether the listed books were on school shelves in their district, and included a letter written by Kraus announcing his plans to initiate an "inquiry" into Texas school district content. Many of the works included in Krause's roundup feature themes concerning race, gender and homosexuality.

As for Keller ISD, school trustees appear to be weighing the possibility of a re-review of its original list of challenged books, according to district spokesman Bryce Nieman, On Tuesday, he told Richman that trustees have approved the directive that would require a reevaluation of contested titles, however the timeline for when that might happen remains uncertain.

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Dan Carson is senior editor at Chron. He has previously worked at FOX Sports and Bleacher Report. He enjoys Formula 1, Indiana basketball and avoiding Galleria traffic.