The Christian Post reports that former Texas inmate, David Stokely, leads a Houston-area Christian ministry that focuses on mentoring at-risk youth and steering them away from the paths that led to his own incarceration. He revealed troubling news in a recent interview on the "Real Texans" podcast, where he expressed shock upon discovering that the content in certain school library books are, according to him, far more graphic than items routinely rejected for inmates under Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) policies.
"Whenever I saw what they were doing, going before the school boards — and I saw the videos — it really attracted me to it because I have a heart for kids,” said Stokely.
He said he read some of the book reports that were sent to him.
“I'm a father of two daughters — they're 20 and 22 now, but I was just thinking about when they were young. And had one of them brought one of these books home, my blood pressure would have been through the roof," stated Stokely.
Mary Elizabeth Castle with Texas Values talked about a state measure that passed in September of 2025.
"Senate Bill 13 is a statewide law that covers all 1,200 school districts in the state of Texas. They are required to have these library councils make sure that they're weeding out all of these inappropriate books, making sure they're not within the standard of sexually explicit material,” states Castle.
She says to think of what would happen if these same books were given to children who are not mentally or emotionally developed.
“What it can do to their behavior? And I think that's the missing part of the conversation, to how these sexually explicit books could cause violence or promiscuous behavior in the children if they're in their hands in the school," says Castle.
