'Call Me Max': a children's book about a transgender boy stirs controversy at Eanes ISD

A book about a transgender boy is now at the center of controversy within Eanes Independent School District.

Last week, a teacher read the book, "Call Me Max," aloud to a group of 4th grade students at Forest Trail Elementary, which sparked a negative response from some parents in the district. The book illustrates a child discovering his identity as a transgender boy.

"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.

Some parents told the district the teacher's decision to share the material was inappropriate, and many other parents reiterated those same concerns in written comments that were shared during Tuesday night’s school board meeting.

“There wasn’t a lot of compassion and willingness to understand. 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,” said Kate Andrade, a parent within the district.

The district responded to parents' concerns with a letter over the weekend, which said the teacher disseminated a list of children’s books “in preparation for Read Across America,” and included topics related to Black and Women’s History months. "Call Me Max" was one of the books featured on that list. The district said the list was not “appropriately reviewed before it was distributed more broadly.”

The district said in part:

“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.”

“To the parents who say, ‘Look I don’t think it should’ve been read, I should’ve been informed, there should’ve been a curriculum review process, that [you] partner with us on,’ I say okay you have a legitimate point,” Leonard told CBS Austin on Wednesday.

Other families are now concerned that negative comments from parents could leave LGBTQ children and their families feeling marginalized. They also feel like the district’s response feels short of supporting the LGBTQ community.

“It was alarming to hear the way the other adults in the community, most of whom did not have children in [that] classroom, reacting,” said Yvonne Adams, who has a child at a different elementary school in the district. “It is absolutely age appropriate for children at that age to be having those discussions.”

District Response and DEI

For over eight months, Eanes ISD has been working with a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consultant. The district also established a DEI Advisory Committee to enhance the community, staff, and student racial awareness as well as establish a more inclusive and diverse curriculum. However, Leonard says the district has not reached that point yet.

“We know it is critically, critically important that we meet children’s needs, and kids go through a lot a different age, and it’s critically important that we meet their needs and we want to do that,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean just because it’s critical that we meet those needs that we don’t have another responsibility to thoughtfully review our curriculum and partner with parents. They’re not mutually exclusive.”

Leonard says the DEI Committee was not aware the book list, including the title "Call Me Max," was circulating.

“We will get there, we will make the decisions about what should be in the curriculum and how to introduce it, and at what ages,” he said. “There are certain things that belong in 12th grade, that probably don’t belong in first grade. It’s just the way it is. But that’s I think where the misstep [is].”

Some parents within the Eanes ISD community, like Jo Ivester, do not buy the district’s justification to pull the book from being shared in the classroom.

“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’. And instead we should be saying the exact opposite to all of our children,” she said.

Ivester says the controversy hits close to home as her son, Jeremy, discovered he was transgender while he was a student at Eanes ISD.

“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,” said Jeremy. “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.”

Striving for equity

Since the incident, a community group of parents called Eanes 4 Equity created a petition calling 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, 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,” said Kate Andrade, a member of Eanes 4 Equity.

The petition has around 1,500 signatures and counting.

“The community’s reaction highlights the need for DEI work to be done within our community,” said Kim Taylor, a member of Eanes 4 Equity.

Author Responds

The Eanes ISD controversy around the book "Call Me Max," has even reached eyes and ears of the book’s author, Kyle Lukoff, who posted about the incident at Forest Trail Elementary and the district’s response in his blog.

He tells CBS Austin the book is geared toward children who are learning to read independently, approximately first or second grade, and he says it is upsetting to learn there are people who view his book as a problem:

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.