Gifford Middle School in east Florida removed the Assassination Classroom from its library last month after receiving complaints from groups.
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu – Manga removed from Florida bookstore
The Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin also removed the manga from its e-library last month after a parent complained.
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.
As a result, Gifford Middle School removed three books from the franchise, which feature illustrations of students with guns 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 given 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 shown 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 schools should glorify or promote, especially with taxpayer money.
Florida bill HB 1467 went into effect last July and requires school libraries to only include books pre-approved or vetted by a holder of “a valid educational media specialist certificate” from the Florida Department of Education.
It's worth noting that the Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin added five books from the franchise to its online library starting in the 2021-2022 school year, but removed them last month after a parent raised concerns that the district might be promoting gun violence against teachers. Elmbrook's director of library services, Kay Koepsel-Benning, called the claim "inaccurate." Another parent also raised concerns about the series' depiction of violence and sexualization of minors.
The series is also challenged in Pender County, North Carolina, where it was then described as a work that teaches students how to kill their teachers.
In Richmond, Virginia, House Bill 1379, which requires school principals to maintain a catalog of all audiovisual content and track which books contain sexually explicit content in the school library and make this information available to parents, passed the House of Delegates in February and is now before 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's interesting to remember that the Death Note manga faced similar complaints in the 2000s and 2010s.
Source: Siliconera
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