This Trans Children's Book Incited a Heated Debate at a Texas School

Call Me Max, a children's book about a transgender boy, has incited an outcry of controversy at an Austin, Texas school district.

The official description of Call Me Max reads: 

"When Max starts school, the teacher hesitates to call out the name on the attendance sheet. Something doesn't seem to fit. Max lets he know the name he wants to be called by — a boy's name. This begins Max's journey as he makes new friends and reveals his feelings about his identity to his parents. Written with warmth and sensitivity by trans writer Kyle Lukoff, this book is a sweet and age-appropriate introduction to what it means to be transgender."

The book was read aloud to a 4th-grade class at Forest Trail Elementary. Some parents were outraged over the " inappropriate" content of the book and took the issue up with the Eanes Independent School District, a few calling for the teacher to be fired. 

"We had some parents then came to us and said, 'Why was this shown, is this in your curriculum, where is this in your curriculum.' It wasn’t," said Eanes ISD Superintendent Tom Leonard.

The district promptly pulled the book from the curriculum and even offered counseling to students in the class.

But community discussions around the drama are just now heating up. Parents supportive of the book and conversation aren't happy the book was labeled as "inappropriate" by the district and that the school offered counseling to students as if the reading was a traumatic event. 

"There wasn’t a lot of compassion and willingness to understand," Kate Andrade, a parent within the district, told CBS Austin. "There was a lot of fear-based reaction from parents. And we really feel that it's our school district’s responsibility and our responsibility as a community to take care of each and every child in our community and have them be seen and heard as their authentic selves."

The district issued a response, claiming that the reading list Call Me Max was included in was not "appropriately reviewed before it was distributed more broadly."

"The particular topic of the book (gender identity) is understandably sensitive and personally important to many families. In time, the subject of gender identity may be addressed instructionally — but only with proper caution and prior parent awareness. We recognize, while we have always tried to create a climate where all children feel they belong, we also have to be aware of the maturity level of children in the classroom regarding sensitive topics.

We plan to use this as an opportunity to reinforce to our staff the need to implement instructional, age- and developmentally appropriate safeguards to prevent further occurrences such as this without prior oversight and parental knowledge."

Superintendent Tom Leonard did admit the book shouldn't have been called  "inappropriate." 

"I understand why that phrase would upset some people. I get it," he concluded, though specifying that parents should have been given a chance to opt their children out of hearing the book for "moral or religious reasons," which he said is required by state law.

But the damage has already been done. 

Jo Ivester, a parent in the district whose own son discovered he was transgender while a student at Eanes ISD, doesn't think EISD handled the situation appropriately. 

"My belief is that what the school did by apologizing and by saying that the book Call Me Max was age-inappropriate was saying to all the transgender children, and there are transgender children in our school district, 'You are invisible, you cannot be who you really are. You cannot talk about yourself, you are not worthy,'" she said. "Instead we should be saying the exact opposite to all of our children."

Ivester's son Jeremy agreed. "If this resource was around when I was a kid and I had been exposed to this, it would’ve been life-changing, because I grew up in a time where no one really knew what transgender was, that it was a thing you could be. I think it’s absolutely appropriate that this is taught in schools and that kids are allowed to see and that it’s not something taboo, that it’s something that should be normalized."

Even the author of the book, Kyle Lukoff, responded to the controversy: "How do you think transgender people in your community felt having their identities treated like a disaster? Do you provide similar resources after a student in your district experiences homophobia or transphobia?"

He continued, "The letter from the district sends a clear message to all transgender people in the community — children, parents, teachers, friends — as well as their allies, that they are not welcome. Which is not a message I believe schools should be sending."

In response to the incident, a group of parents called Eanes 4 Equity have launched a petition "for all children to feel safe and supported by the district and showing support for teachers as they navigate creating an inclusive environment for their students."

"While this isn’t part of the curriculum, it’s part of what Eanes as a district says that they teach," said Eanes 4 Equity member Kate Andrade, "which is social [and] emotional learning, and how you treat one another, and how we accept one another and how every child is accepted and seen."