McCallum’s Banned Book Club went to the Austin Central Library on Oct. 7, 2025 for a gathering of banned books clubs all over AISD. LASA and Bowie also attended the event, which Ann Richards organized. It was entirely student run from the initial idea of creating a banned book club reunion to acquiring the event space and guest speakers. 

Librarian Mathew Zuniga allowed students to roam around the library until the event officially started. Students were encouraged to explore the teen area on the third floor as well as the patio at roof level of the library.

The students then returned to the reunion, which  was held below the main floor of the library in the special events center. While this is usually a very expensive venue to rent with a rate of $2,600 for four hours with an additional $650 fee for every hour over that, the library agreed to let Ann Richards use it for free. 

This kickoff was first held at the Austin Central Library in fall 2023. It was organized by the McCallum Banned Book Club which was not run by Zuniga’s predecessor as head librarian, Jain Orr. The McCallum Banned Books Club decided to organize the original event to encourage interaction between banned books clubs in other schools. After attending the first districtwide banned book club meeting her sophomore year, senior Ann Richards student Reese Palmgren realized she wanted to recreate that experience.  

“I had the idea,” Palmgren said, “of well, what if we do something like this again?”

The Ann Richards club began planning in the spring of 2024 and hosted monthly meetings over the summer to figure out the logistics of hosting such an event. By August, they had set the venue and the date, but had to organize the guest speakers and activities for students to do at the meet. 

Caroline Foote opened the meet with co-speaker Cameron Samuels. Foote introduced herself as one of the founding members of FReadom Fighters, a group of librarians who challenge book banning laws. She spoke about the different ways to challenge banned books,  encouraging students to call local law makers. 

Foote then introduced Samuels, founder of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), as a former student of hers.  He spoke about litigation that his organization had been fighting as well as several protests SEAT has organized at the Texas capital with the help of student members. These protests included a “read in” where student and adult members of SEAT read challenged books while sitting on the floor of the capital. 

Once the speakers were done the Ann Richards student organizers went into a game of trivia through Kahoot about different banned books. McCallum senior and Banned Book Club president Elise Garza participated in this trivia, who had participated in the first districtwide banned book club meet two years prior.

Garza enjoyed the opportunity to talk with people who also like reading banned books.

“It’s very heartening to see so many people in my community who are passionate about reading banned books and it’s a great opportunity to spread my own love of banned books to other people,”Garza said.  

Zuniga agreed with Garza about the sense of community at the event. Since the event was entirely student run, Zuniga got to observe the event with fellow AISD librarians and enjoyed watching students interact with one another.

 “I think students should get the chance to meet students from other schools in non-competitive ways,” Zuniga said. “It’s been really nice to see the students start to mingle with each other.” 

New Texas legislation threatens certain school clubs from happening, including  SB 12 which bans the existence of LGBTQ+ clubs in public schools. With laws like this being passed, some banned book club members are worried for the future of their club. 

“I’m worried about the potential books bans and challenges that will directly affect banned book clubs, but also the legislation that will indirectly affect Mr. Z,” said Garza, “I’m worried about all the budget cuts that are putting more responsibilities on the librarians and taking away their capacity to focus more on library centered, book centered and people centered programs like the banned book club.”  

But hope is on the horizon according to Zuniga, even with possible laws taking effect, there hasn’t been much push back toward him or McCallum’s club. 

“If anything, I think in these times, a lot of people are very happy that this exists and they give a lot of encouragement for these sorts of groups,” Zuniga said.