- A parent in Texas called for a children's book about former first lady Michelle Obama be pulled from schools, NBC News reported.
- The parent said the book unfairly depicted Donald Trump as a bully and would make white girls feel "ashamed."
- Books depicting race, sexuality, and gender, have become the target of conservatives who say the topics should stay out of schools.
A parent in Texas called for a children's biography about former first lady Michelle Obama to be pulled from school libraries because they viewed it as unfair to former President Donald Trump.
The Katy, Texas, parent took issue with a book titled "Michelle Obama: Political Icon" by Heather E. Schwartz, claiming it "unfairly" depicted Trump "as a bully," according to NBC News, which on Wednesday published a list of 50 books that parents in Texas have asked schools to remove.
The request came as books depicting race, sexuality, and gender have faced heightened scrutiny from conservatives in the US, with many demanding certain titles be pulled from school libraries.
The parent in Katy, who was not named in NBC's report, said the book about Michelle Obama gave the impression that "if you sound like a white girl you should be ashamed of yourself," NBC News reported.
In a statement to Insider, Schwartz said she was "shocked" that someone wanted to ban her book because it "is a nonfiction book that doesn't strike me as at all controversial."
Maria Corrales DiPetta, a spokesperson for the Katy Independent School District, told Insider the district reviewed the book after the complaint and determined it would not be removed. Any book that is challenged is reviewed by the district, even if only one parent submits a complaint, she said.
"We could have gotten hundreds of requests, and it would have gone through the same process," she added.
In December, Katy ISD began pulling books from the shelves after parents complained about their vulgarity, the Houston Chronicle reported.
"The Board of Trustees and I stand by this policy and firmly believe that there is no place for books that contain pervasively vulgar content in Katy ISD libraries," Superintendent Ken Gregorski said at the time.
"It is our expectation that books within our collections are age appropriate for the students and families we serve," Gregorski added.
Similar efforts have gained traction from state legislators and other community leaders in the US. Late last year, a state legislator in Oklahoma proposed a bill that would've prohibited books in school libraries that depicted sexual activity or discussions around sexuality and gender identity, The New York Times reported.
In October last year, a Wyoming prosecutor declined a request to prosecute library employees in one conservative town for stocking several books about sex education and others with LGBTQ+ themes, The Associated Press reported.
"As an author, a reader, and a parent, I'm against book banning on principle," Schwartz, the author of the Obama biography, said. "There couldn't be a safer way for kids to learn about difficult topics, gain new perspectives, and explore the world and their place in it than by reading words on a page."