© Matsui Yusei, Shueisha, Viz Media
Over the past two months, two Tennessee school districts have listed books, including comic book series, that have been removed from school libraries. Other school districts in Tennessee are considering how to comply with a new state law this year limiting books in school libraries.
Rutherford County Schools removed more than 150 books from the school library on Nov. 11, a day after board member Frances Rosales reported the books. first eight volumes Matsui Yuseiof Assassination Classroom Comics and Volume 1 Okubo Atsushiof fire brigade is one of the titles under review.
Caleb Tidwell, another board member, said the titles contained sexually explicit material in accordance with school board policy and state obscenity laws. At a September board meeting, one of Tidwell’s supporters said the books contained “pornographic material.”
The removal follows an earlier list of banned books released by Tidwell in February that included 35 books that were not part of the district’s curriculum but could be found in the library. The district has 60 days to review the books before deciding to return them to the library or ban them permanently.
Wilson County Schools, another school district in Tennessee, on Oct. 24 listed about 400 titles to be removed from school libraries. This list includes the following titles:
© Hajime Isayama, Kodansha, Kodansha USA
Rosales told Chalkbeat, a news organization dedicated to American education, that she used Wilson County’s deletion list as well as the Book Looks website to compile a list of books to be removed from Rutherford County schools. (School districts in other states have removed terms such as Assassination Classroom Based in part on last year’s Book Looks review.
The Tennessee Legislature made changes to the Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 on July 1, expanding the definition of obscenity.
The revised bill now bans any material that “contains nudity or depicts or depicts sexual excitement, sexual behavior, excessive violence or sadomasochism.” Age appropriateness should also be considered for material that appeals to “lascivious interests”.
The websites Chalkbeat and Clarksville Now reported that the Clarksville-Montgomery County School District sent Wilson County Schools’ list of deleted books as a “resource” to its schools for review and consideration for removal.
Recent Comic Removals and Bans in the United States
Richmond County Schools in North Carolina removed all copies unique: Awakening On sale in late November at the area’s Scholastic Book Fairs, pending review. The move comes after the mother of a first-grader at Mineral Springs Elementary School complained about depictions of gun violence and animal cruelty, specifically when a man attacked a cat.
Horry County Schools Relocation, South Carolina Matsui Yuseiof Assassination Classroom The comic was removed from the school library on Nov. 15 after the mother of a ninth-grade student at Socastee High School complained to the school district about its content. According to the district’s policy, the district’s review board’s decision “and local board review, if applicable,” cannot be challenged for five years.
Gifford Middle School in East Florida demolished Assassination Classroom The comic was pulled from its library in March 2023 after complaints from groups. The Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin similarly removed the comic from its electronic library that month after parents complained. The series has faced challenges in other states as well.
Brevard, Florida public school board bans Volume 1 Chunyuan Xiangof Sasaki and Miyano boys love The comic was released in the district’s school libraries earlier this year at the Aug. 27 board meeting. One person in the area questioned whether the book would be included in school libraries on the grounds that “sexual orientation should not be encouraged, advised or indoctrinated into young people”. The complaint also included concerns that children would be “exposed to age-inappropriate, obscene and sexually explicit material” and that there was “no value in providing gay and lesbian books in schools”. The book is rated T for Teens.
Utah in August banned the sale of 13 non-comic books in all the state’s public schools, and under a new law, all 41 school districts in the state will ban the sale of books with pornographic or indecent content. Tennessee, Idaho and South Carolina have similar laws and regulations that allow books to be banned from school libraries across the state, according to the Associated Press.
Sources: WSMV (Stacey Cameron), (Link 2, Kassidy Brown), Chalkbeat (Marta W. Aldrich), Clarksville Now (Jordan Renfro)
