BCSC board votes to support committee recommendation to keep “Push” novel in school library

Columbus, Ind. (The Republic) — Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board members unanimously voted Monday night to uphold a committee’s decision to keep a challenged book in the Columbus East High School library.

The challenged book was “Push,” a 1996 novel by author Sapphire, which was later later made into the 2009 film “Precious.”

The request for review of the book was submitted by local resident Mark Niemoeller.

A description of the book on the author’s website reads, “Precious Jones, an illiterate 16-year-old, has up until now been invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem’s casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as she learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it truly her own for the first time.”

The 7-0 vote came after a failed motion by District 6 board member Logan Schulz to amend the committee’s findings so that the book could remain on the shelves, but only be checked out with parental consent.

“The motion that has been made is to amend the proposed findings as they were written, it (the findings) just said ‘remain on the shelves.’ This first question is, do you want to add to that ‘available with parental consent,’” BCSC Attorney Michael McIver clarified before members cast votes.

That motion received two votes in favor — one from Schulz and another from District 1 board member Jason Major. After, the motion to uphold the committee’s findings as they were originally written was approved 7-0.

This is the second time the process for removing a book from a BCSC library has played itself out following Major’s unsuccessful effort to remove “People Kill People” by author Ellen Hopkins earlier this year.

Board members voted 5-1 on March 4 to keep the book in the library at Columbus East. Schulz was the lone vote to remove the book after Major recused himself. At the time, Schulz indicated that he wished not to remove the book, but to move it to a part of a library that would require parental consent, but he did not make a similar motion as the one he made on Monday night.

This story will be updated.

This article was originally published in The Republic.