After outcry, Texas lieutenant governor says schools should teach ‘Night’ and other Holocaust books - The Times of Israel

Patrick made the clarification in a statement given exclusively to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday. It follows a month of uncertainty that started after a press conference where Patrick and a conservative Christian activist threatened school districts with lost state funding if they didn't comply with the book removal directive. Texas public schools, including districts here in Lubbock, fall under that same state funding structure, so any statewide library policy shift lands close to home.

Patrick's statement singles out "Night" and "The Diary of Anne Frank" as books he believes Texas students must keep reading. He says his original directive was never meant to sweep up Holocaust literature. School librarians and administrators across the state had been left guessing for weeks about which titles actually fell under the purge order, and Patrick's statement is the first direct attempt to draw that line.

For families and teachers here, this matters because library policy fights tend to move fast once state officials start threatening funding. A vague directive followed by a walk-back leaves districts scrambling to figure out what's actually required before the next school year starts.

It took a month, and a direct ask from a Jewish news outlet, before anyone got a straight answer about the Holocaust books.