What does one do after fighting off a book ban in Central York? Write a book called “Fighting Censorship.”

In 2021, the community learned the school board banned hundreds of resources in November 2020, which made national news. In response, four then-Central students Edha Gupta, Renee Ellis, Olivia Pituch and Christina Ellis led protests, with teachers Patricia Jackson and Ben Hodge at their backs. The protests continued until the board lifted the ban. 

They drew so much attention that two of the students, Christina Ellis and Pituch, testified before a congressional subcommittee in 2022.

Last winter, the four teens were also recognized for their work when the now-college students received the Beloved Youth Influencer Award from the King Center in Atlanta.

For some time, the group discussed what to do with their experience before settling on writing a book. With the help of literary agent Sara Megibow of KY Literary, Jackson said, the group pitched their book, which was picked up by Lerner Publishing Group.

The publisher wanted them to write it in an academic book format, and the activists initially questioned if that was the right move.

But, after some discussion, the authors learned it would be a young adult book with their thoughts, arguments, memories and counterarguments. Each wrote multiple chapters on different issues.

Pituch told the Dispatch the book is about how they combatted book bans but also why the most common arguments in favor of book bans don’t work.

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In one of her chapters, she wrote about the argument that “education should stick to core subjects” rather than teach social-emotional learning. 

“They claim reading books about those hard subjects or having those hard conversations will damage or trigger kids,” she said. Pituch said what actually happens is when someone reads and talks about those issues, it helps validate the person. It also creates a healthy exposure to difficult subjects rather than waiting for the student to be exposed in the real world, which she said could be more damaging. 

One of Jackson’s chapters was about how people argue these books are pornography. Her counterargument asks if those people are calling sexual assault pornography and if so, are they saying those who were assaulted consented or deserved the assault?

“And do you understand what the definition of pornography truly is?” Jackson continued, adding there is a three-pronged test that helps decide if literature qualifies. 

Hodge wrote a chapter about how Black history is American history, which was his counter to arguments heard in Central York and across the country saying that anti-racism books make white people feel uncomfortable and teach people to hate being Americans. 

However, from Hodge’s experience, Black history helped him and others understand and love the nation’s policies and freedoms more deeply. 

“So there’s nothing that white people need to be afraid of,” he said, adding people should be embracing this history because it “defines what it means to be American.” 

While Jackson, a published author, and Pituch agreed this was a difficult process, Pituch said the book is an important guide to let people know they aren’t the only ones to have dealt with or who are still fighting these ban battles. 

While this book can help people know they aren’t alone, the book can also help educate those on the other side of the ban who don’t see the problem with banning books or who are fully invested in the practice. When speaking to people on the other side, Pituch laid out the arguments as to why the ban was wrong. She said some noticed their perception was off. 

“We just want to let people understand the issue and understand how beneficial and how incredible these books can really be if they are allowed to be used,” Pituch said. 

Jackson said the student group Panther Anti-Racist Union is in a unique situation because a new generation of students in the group recently fought off a second book ban.

In September 2022, Faith Casale, who was a board candidate in this last election and lost, filed challenges on three high school library books: “Push” by Sapphire, “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J. Maas and “Sold” by Patricia McCormick. 

Those challenges led to the removal of the first two books from the library in January. 

When the new PARU students learned of this, including some who also fought the previous ban, they spoke out regularly at board meetings and protested in front of the school. 

The school board reversed the decision when they voted in a new library resource policy in June, which also returned the books. The new policy creates several categories for books in the district’s library system based on readers’ ages. Parents can restrict their children’s access to specified age-based categories and request that books be categorized based on content.

Hodge said once they started writing this book, one of the huge parts was to discuss what happened in the board meetings. 

“They really wanted us to hone in on arguments that we heard specifically in our area,” he said, adding what the counterarguments were and what PARU used in the protests and comments to the board and news media. 

He said for him personally, looking back it was powerful and kind of overwhelming. He also thinks the book’s title is an exciting way to think about the book. 

“We’re designing this book in a way as a workbook, a handbook for people to pick up in their small communities and get some motivation, get some inspiration and also get some counterarguments,” he said, adding “the word is out on book banning,” meaning people are not fans of it. 

The book was categorized as young adult is because “it’s really about the kids,” Jackson said. She said she and Hodge were not the front line of this fight, but rather the ones who were “the wall at (the students’) back.”

She said it was nice that the adults didn’t come for the students, but she still wanted to protect them.

“And if you were coming for them, you were going to have to come through me first,” she said. 

Jackson added the book’s focus and spotlight should be on the students.

“And what better place than young adult, because we teach our children they don’t have voices for some reason,” she said. She added that successful revolutions happen when children lead the charge with adults at their backs. But it doesn’t work when the students and the adults aren’t united.

Hodge said the younger people are “hungry to be heard and hungry to be listened to.” Which is why, he added, it is important to see the students for who they are and allow them to be more comfortable with who they are. 

He thinks teachers will want to read this book because, from his personal experience as a young teacher, it can be hard to interact with students. Hodge said theater and creativity are a way to help people find and share their voices, which could be seen by the four PARU students who were in his classes. Hodge said those students were able to be on the frontlines because they learned how important it is to share their voices.

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Jackson said the book is also about empathy. Some people say not everyone deserves their child’s empathy, she said, referencing a recently settled lawsuit against West Shore School District over social-emotional learning.

In that lawsuit, four parents sued the district after the district refused to give the parents religious exemption. One of the parents wrote in an email to district officials that not everyone deserves her children’s empathy. The district and the parents settled last month, which resulted in the parents being able to opt their children out. 

But once those children are hurt on the playground, the parents demand all the empathy, Jackson said. 

“My thing is when you ban books, you’re removing empathy,” she said. 

Jackson agrees there are tough books out there, including “Push.” If she were asked to teach it, Jackson would, but with a struggle. She said she would have to prepare the students to read that book. 

“Children need to understand that your backyard does not look like everybody else’s backyard,” she said. “That is how you create empathy.”

She said if those students could learn empathy through the book, issues such as attacks on the LGBTQ+ community would stop. But she knows that won’t happen overnight. 

Pituch said, “If we can get that conversation going and kind of open that conversation with our book, I think a lot can follow, even if it is a slow follow.”

As for the possibility of their book getting banned, Pituch said she isn’t as worried about it happening at Central. Hodge replied, “you never know.”

Pituch feels confident about Central after her stepfather, Mike Stewart, and others were elected onto the board recently. But if the book is banned somewhere else, she would view the book as a success. The college students explained the book covers the foundation of what the book banners stand for. It might scare people because it makes those arguments “less credible,” she said. 

She also hopes the book gives people hope and motivation to keep fighting like PARU did. Pituch said if they didn’t fight back, the district wouldn’t be where it is now, with a flipped school board, new policies and two overturned bans.

As for future books, Jackson said they are first trying to survive the first book.

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