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Anne Frank’s Diary Not Banned, School Superintendent Says
by Dion J. Pierre
A man looks at an exhibition about Anne Frank at the Victory museum in Sibenik, Croatia, February 3, 2017. Picture taken February 3, 2017. REUTERS/Antonio Bronic
The Keller Independent School District (KISD) is denying that Anne Frank’s Diary and The Bible have been banned from its schools.
On Thursday, KISD superintendent Dr. Rick Westfall said the books in question are not banned but under “re-evaluation,” explaining that new policies require that any text against which a complaint is filed must be “removed from the shelves” until it is deemed appropriate for students.
“It is important to be clear about this point,” Westfall continued. “Regardless of headlines or social media stories, none of the books under re-evaluation were banned.”
As previously reported, KISD’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, Jennifer Price, ordered that dozens of library books that parents and community members had “challenged” be removed from the library immediately. The decision touched off vehement denouncements from anti-censorship organizations and Jewish groups.
Noting that the standard edition of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is still in circulation, Westfall added that he expects that its graphic comic adaption, Anne Frank’s Diary, as well as the Bible, “will be on shelves very soon.”
“I want to assure you that Keller ISD is not banning the Bible or the Diary of Anne Frank, as has been suggested in some headlines and shared on social media,” Westfall wrote in a statement. “We have, unfortunately, received reports of individual employees being attacked on social media, by phone, and through email because some have perceived these employees as having developed this list.”
