The Redlands school board voted 3–2 Tuesday night to remove Push by Sapphire from schools and voted unanimously to restrict access to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The books were challenged by a member of the public through the board’s recent book challenge policy. The policy streamlines the process to complain about books if someone deems the content obscene or sexually explicit.
The challenges were submitted in October. The school board appointed a committee to evaluate the books based on a district-created rubric. The committee participants were not made public, but the completed rubrics were published with Tuesday’s agenda.
Both novels are written by Black authors and depict themes of sexual violence, racism and the effects of trauma. The rubrics had five categories: presence of explicit sexual content, depictions of sexual violence, contextual purpose, age and developmental suitability, and potential negative impact on students. Each category was rated on a scale from zero to five, with zero indicating a book should not be removed and five indicating it should. Three rubrics were filled out for each book, and each found that the books were appropriate for high school students and should not be completely removed from school libraries.
The policy also required a public hearing for each book challenge. Critics of the books said the books amounted to “pornography” and included gratuitous sexual content. Meanwhile, those opposed to removing the books said that removing them was just a book ban by a different name.
“These works, while difficult, are powerful social commentaries, not blueprints for harmful behavior,” said board member Melissa Ayala-Quintero. “Censorship attempts fundamentally misinterpret their literary purpose, both novels offer searing first-person accounts of systemic abuse and neglect.”
Candy Olson, a Christian conservative board member, said the books include details that are unnecessarily sexually explicit.
“The whole reason for this is to protect children because sexually explicit content is harmful,” said board member Candy Olson.
Board members Jeanette Wilson and Michelle Rendler also said the books included descriptions too graphic for students.
“Have a book that talks about the same situation without all of the details, and then have it where kids could read that, and then they could understand, hey, this isn't normal. I need to talk to a trusted adult,” Olson said.
Opponents of removing the titles say students should have access to books that deal with difficult subjects and that limiting access is just banning books. The bill bans the censorship of textbooks and other classroom materials that offer diverse perspectives.
“This doesn’t violate AB 1078,” said Olson. “This is about sexually explicit material, not diversity.”
Assemblymember Jackson said that while the book removals don’t violate the letter of the law, they violate the spirit of it. He said the Redlands board is circumventing the diversity issue by calling the books “obscene” and “pornographic.”
“Why are they trying to get rid of books by Black and brown authors?” said Jackson.
Jackson said the board should not be deciding what other people’s children read. While it’s not clear if the removals do violate AB 1078, Jackson said he’s going to look into strengthening the law’s protections against removing books.