Tennessee State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) said Sunday’s ruling in a case challenging the Williamson County Board of Education’s refusal to comply with a state law mandating that all public schools review the content accessible to students in school libraries is a “precedent setting decision” for cases challenging laws made by the Tennessee General Assembly moving forward.
In 2023, a group of parents from Williamson County brought a lawsuit against the Williamson County Board of Education after the Board refused to comply with the Age-Appropriate Materials Act, which was passed by the Tennessee General Assembly.
Under the Age-Appropriate Materials Act, schools must have a procedure to “receive and evaluate feedback from a student, a student’s parent or guardian, or a school employee regarding one or more of the materials in the library collection of the student’s or employee’s school.”
Schools must then evaluate such material to “determine whether the material is appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials, and to determine whether the material is suitable for, and consistent with, the educational mission of the school.”
If deemed inappropriate for students, a school must also remove the materials from its libraries.
On Sunday, Circuit Court Judge Deana Hood ruled that the Williamson County Board of Education must comply with the Age-Appropriate Materials Act via a writ of mandamus.
Under the judge’s order, the school board must review five specific texts in its schools’ libraries that parents have issued concerns about and determine whether or not those texts are appropriate or inappropriate for children to have access to.
The school board must then demonstrate to the court the steps it has taken to comply with the state law.
Bulso, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, called the group of parents “courageous” for challenging the Williamson County Board of Education over its refusal to hear their concerns about materials accessible to their children in school.
“Judge Deana Hood’s ruling today is a huge win for Williamson County parents and students. Books that promote transgender ideology have absolutely no place in our kindergarten school libraries. Likewise, books that are so obscene that they cannot be read aloud during a school board meeting have no place in our middle and high school libraries,” Bulso said in a statement.
On Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Bulso said the judge’s ruling in the case sets an “excellent precedent” for future cases challenging the Age-Appropriate Materials Act and other laws enacted by the General Assembly moving forward.
“This case does set an excellent precedent for all of the school boards and all of the 95 counties that we have in Tennessee, because it is clear now that the judiciary is going to stand behind the law and require that the Age-Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 be enforced as well as any other laws that the General Assembly might pass,” Bulso explained.
“This is a precedent setting decision that I think will have an impact not just here in Williamson County, but across the state,” Bulso added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Gino Bulso” by Gino Bulso for State Representative. Background Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Andre Porter. CC BY-SA 3.0.
