diff --git a/channels/handler.py b/channels/handler.py
index 42fe00e..8c2f61d 100644
--- a/channels/handler.py
+++ b/channels/handler.py
@@ -242,7 +242,6 @@ class AsgiHandler(base.BaseHandler):
         # Make initial response message
         message = {
             "status": response.status_code,
-            "status_text": response.reason_phrase.encode("ascii"),
             "headers": response_headers,
         }
         # Streaming responses need to be pinned to their iterator
diff --git a/channels/tests/test_handler.py b/channels/tests/test_handler.py
index 7dc1c7c..516ec16 100644
--- a/channels/tests/test_handler.py
+++ b/channels/tests/test_handler.py
@@ -58,7 +58,6 @@ class HandlerTests(SimpleTestCase):
         # Make sure the message looks correct
         self.assertEqual(reply_message["content"], b"Hi there!")
         self.assertEqual(reply_message["status"], 200)
-        self.assertEqual(reply_message["status_text"], b"OK")
         self.assertEqual(reply_message.get("more_content", False), False)
         self.assertEqual(
             reply_message["headers"],
diff --git a/docs/asgi.rst b/docs/asgi.rst
index 2a5f9a7..6916471 100644
--- a/docs/asgi.rst
+++ b/docs/asgi.rst
@@ -509,10 +509,6 @@ Keys:
 
 * ``status``: Integer HTTP status code.
 
-* ``status_text``: Byte string HTTP reason-phrase, e.g. ``OK`` from ``200 OK``.
-  Ignored for HTTP/2 clients. Optional, default should be based on ``status``
-  or left as empty string if no default found.
-
 * ``headers``: A list of ``[name, value]`` pairs, where ``name`` is the
   byte string header name, and ``value`` is the byte string
   header value. Order should be preserved in the HTTP response. Header names
@@ -881,7 +877,7 @@ WSGI's ``environ`` variable to the Request message:
 
 The ``start_response`` callable maps similarly to Response:
 
-* The ``status`` argument becomes ``status`` and ``status_text``
+* The ``status`` argument becomes ``status``, with the reason phrase dropped.
 * ``response_headers`` maps to ``headers``
 
 It may even be possible to map Request Body Chunks in a way that allows