Indiana is the latest conservative state to fight back against inappropriate materials being available to students in classrooms and libraries. Republican legislators introduced House Bill 1195 to ban obscene content in school literature, aiming to align district policies with parents' wishes. Yes, it's a preamble to book bans. This action comes on the heels of a controversial vote by the board of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC) in Columbus, IN, approving a book titled Push by the novelist Sapphire. During a meeting and subsequent vote, parents lined up to deliver peaceful protests against having the book on the shelves, calling it "violent, pornographic," and disturbing.
The board then passed a measure that bars parents from keeping the title out of children's hands. But it is in direct defiance of an Indiana law that already exists. Citing 2023 legislation that explicitly bans schools from making "obscene matter" available, Cindi Hajicek, the executive director of Purple for Parents United, said, "If we followed the letter of the law, we don't need any other laws."
According to Hajicek, the definition of "obscene matter" changes for every book that comes under fire by parents.
A Different Perspective
The book Push is violent, and it includes graphic sexual details regarding child rape, compromised children, and incestuous relationships resulting in teen pregnancy. The language – written in first person perspective – is guttural, graphic, and shocking.
The events are, however, based on students' experiences that the author, Sapphire, heard as a remedial reading teacher in Harlem in the 1990s. She created a composite-character story that won accolades and literary awards. Perhaps that results in a tome that's good for an adult to read and ponder what the heck is wrong in America – but for a kid?
Conservative alarm is not the only cause of book banning in the United States. Progressives love to ban The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little House on the Prairie, and To Kill a Mockingbird, claiming they are racist. Or, from another angle, readers might appreciate their themes of overcoming hardship and racism with the support of family and friends. Instead, the ideologues want to burden the stacks of school libraries with books involving LGBTQ+ issues, graphic sexual content, and a "how to" for young children to perform sexual acts on one another.
Indiana is not alone in the struggle to protect youngsters from accessing pornographic and downright horrifying material during library time. Utah's HB 374, a law that bars sensitive materials from public schools, also covers Push. According to PEN America, other states are following suit or, in some cases, blazing a trail:
"PEN America recorded 10,046 instances of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year. In the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America counted book bans in 29 states and 220 public school districts, with Florida and Iowa leading in number of bans."
Age-Related Book Bans
David Harsanyi, a senior editor at The Federalist, penned a piece on the banning of books after reading the alarmist PEN America report and concluded: "The preponderance of the books on the list feature sexually explicit scenes -- and many have minority and gay characters because regrettably, so-called progressives have decided to teach kids that their immutable physical characteristics or sexuality or 'gender expression' define them, rather than their achievements and deeds."
And that is precisely what parents are trying to convey to the progressives in charge of this nation's education – educate, don’t indoctrinate. Save the sexual exploration and instruction for later in life and instead focus on STEM programs, literary classics, art, and music. Teach history with all its greatness and ugliness, emphasize merit, competition, and how to become a useful member of society. America should not have to be in the business of legislating K-12 school content.
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