A civil rights probe has officially been launched after a school superintendent in Texas ordered librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed books from the shelves.

According to a joint investigation by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, Granbury Independent School District superintendent Jeremy Glenn instructed librarians to remove the books, and made questionable comments regarding them during a meeting in January.

"I acknowledge that there are men that think they're women and there are women that think they're men. I don't have any issues with what people want to believe, but there's no place for it in out libraries," he is heard saying in a leaked video recording from the meeting.

He later went on to clarify he was requesting the move because parents and board trustees in the "very, very conservative" community had complained about the books.

"It's the transgender, LGBTQ and the sex...sexuality in books. That's what the governor has said he will prosecute people for and that's what we're pulling out," Glenn added.

The American Civil Liberties Union first filed a discrimination complaint against the district in July, and the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights branch notified school officials of the investigation on Dec. 6.

Prior to Glenn's meeting with librarians, Republican Texas Gov. Gregg Abbot had continued to describe LGBTQ-themed books as "pornographic," demanding they be removed from schools.

Abbot's office contacted the state education agency, library, archives commission, board of education, and association of school boards in an attempt to remove these books. The Texas Association of School Boards responded, saying it has no authority over school districts. Afterward, Abbot called on education officials to "...do what the Texas Association of School Boards refuses to do."

The investigation into the removal of the books alleges that the policies violate Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which prohibits schools from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, sex and gender.

The ACLU filing claims that, "The atmosphere created by Superintendent Glenn's comments and by the book removals remains—a school environment that is pervasively hostile to LGBTQ+ and especially transgender and non-binary students."

While district officials have acknowledged the superintendent's comments, they have not provided any further statement. From the over 130 books that were pulled, eight of them will be removed according to ABC's WFAA news.