Gifford Middle School in eastern Florida removed the Assassination Classroom from its library last month after receiving complaints from groups.
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu – Manga removed from bookstore in Florida
The Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin also removed the manga from its electronic library last month following a complaint from a parent.
The work also faces challenges in other states.
In the manga Assassination Classroom and its adaptations, a class of high school students are tasked with assassinating their teacher (who is actually an alien with superpowers) before he destroys the Earth at the end of the school year.
Therefore, Gifford Middle School removed three books from the franchise, which feature illustrations of students with weapons in a classroom from its library. According to Jennifer Pippin, president of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty, the books were inappropriate considering the recent school shootings in the United States.
Jennifer Pippin added:
We don't want students to think it's okay to kill their teachers.
Another Florida group, Citizens Defending Freedom, announced it will deal harshly with the manga, which is present in Florida high schools despite its violent content.
The organization's national communications director, Kristen Huber, stated:
We should all be able to agree that violence against teachers and explicit sexual content is not something that schools should glorify or promote, especially with taxpayer dollars.
Florida's bill HB 1467 went into effect last July and requires school libraries to include only books pre-approved or reviewed by a holder of “a valid educational media specialist certificate” from the Florida Department of Education .
It's worth remembering that Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin added five books from the franchise to its electronic library starting in the 2021-2022 school year, but removed them last month after a parent raised concerns that the district might be promoting armed violence against teachers. Elmbrook Director of Library Services Kay Koepsel-Benning said the claim is “inaccurate.” Additionally, another parent raised concerns about the series' depiction of violence and sexualization of minors.
The series is also disputed in Pender County, North Carolina, where it was then described as a work that educates students on how to kill their teachers.
In Richmond, Virginia, House Bill 1379, which requires school principals to maintain a catalog of all audiovisual content and keep track of which books contain sexually explicit content in the school library and make this information available to parents, was approved by the House of Delegates in February, and is now being discussed in Senate subcommittees. Delegate Tim Anderson, who sponsored the bill, cited the manga Assassination Classroom and said he questioned the fact that the work is available in some school libraries.
Finally, it is interesting to remember that the Death Note manga faced similar complaints in the 2000s and 2010s.
Source: Siliconera
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