Indiana District Approves Pornographic Book In Classroom

Conservative Indiana lawmakers want to pass a bill banning sexually explicit material in school classrooms after another district approved a pornographic book in the face of parents’ objections.

In September, the board for the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC) in Columbus, Indiana (located between Indianapolis and Louisville), voted to approve a book titled Push by Sapphire, despite protests from parents concerned about graphic text. One board member read passages from the book at the meeting where they passed a measure that bars parents from keeping the title out of children’s hands.

“Just me trying to go through this right now makes me almost want to throw up,” he said.

The school board, however, denied a motion to require parental consent for children to access the book and approved another to keep the title on the school library shelves.

“After reviewing this matter, the Board concludes that Push by Sapphire is not ‘obscene’ or ‘harmful to minors’ as the terms are defined in Indiana Code,” a conclusion from the meeting reads. “The decision of the evaluation committee is upheld and the book may remain on the shelves of the Columbus East High School Media Center.”

Micah Clark, the head of the Indiana American Family Association, told The Federalist that parents are routinely “shocked” by the graphic content distributed to students in schools.

“If a parent can’t control what a child reads,” Clark said, “that is a dereliction of duty on the school board’s part.”

A new bill proposed in the Indiana legislature last month would have prohibited the school board from overruling parents. In January, a trio of lawmakers proposed House Bill 1195, which requires schools to adopt a policy barring the availability of obscene content to students. The bill, however, has yet to be scheduled for a hearing by the House Education Committee chaired by GOP Rep. Robert Behning. Clark told The Federalist, however, the committee chairman “doesn’t seem to want to hear the bill.”

“He tends to deal with education issues the establishment or the educational system wants,” Clark said. “He doesn’t seem to like these kinds of social issues.”

Behning did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Federalist on Friday.

Cindi Hajicek, the executive director for an Indiana children’s advocacy group called Purple for Parents United, told The Federalist that the board for the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC) was already breaking incumbent laws.

“If we followed the letter of the law, we don’t need any other laws,” she said, pointing to a piece of legislation passed in 2023 banning schools from “mak[ing] available” “obscene matter.” She explained that school boards, however, have made a habit of evading the law by denying the obscenity of objectionable material.

“They just simply put out a statement that it does not meet the statutory requirements for obscenity or harmful matter,” she said.

Hajicek emphasized that her group still supports the latest bill proposed by lawmakers on the topic “because it clarifies the definition of porn for the average person.”

“In a perfect world our existing laws would be sufficient,” she told The Federalist.

Indiana students are meanwhile struggling in the classroom more than four years after coronavirus lockdowns closed the schools for prolonged periods. Less than 35 percent of fourth and eighth graders were proficient in reading, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. Clark complained the low scores were because districts were giving students “crap” like the book Push.

“The reaction from the other side is ‘we want to ban books,’” Clark said. “Please, I wish schools were reading the classics. … That is such a red herring to say we’re banning classic books.”

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of “Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).” He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here. Buy “Fat and Unhappy” here.