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Anne Frank’s Diary Back in Circulation at Texas School District
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
A graphic comic adaptation of Anne Frank’s Diary is back in circulation at libraries in Keller Independent School District (KISD), a spokesperson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday.
The book had been temporarily removed from the school district’s libraries earlier this month at the request of parents and community members. The move elicited a firestorm of national criticism, with Jewish and anti-censorship groups stepping forward to argue for the book’s place in the education of young people.
KISD’s school board president, Charles Randklev, discussed the controversy at a meeting on Monday, calling its news coverage a “misinformation campaign of lies.”
“The media has done an absolute[ly] terrible job on covering what’s happened over the last week within Keller ISD,” he said in a statement. “For the record, Keller ISD is not banning the Bible or Anne Frank.”
Randklev maintained that protecting students from “pornographic material” and “championing transparency”of the process under which books are acquired for students motivated the initial decision. Both editions of Anne Frank’s Diary include descriptions of her genitalia and discussions of same-sex attraction, which, one parent said earlier this month, likely prompted complaints against them.
During the meeting, school board members passed a new rule banning books with “illustrations or description(s) of nude intimate body parts,” but Frank’s will not affected by the measure, a district spokesperson confirmed with JTA.
According to JTA, other groups have pledged to donate hundreds of copies of it to the district.
JTA reported that community member Sherry Simon, who is Jewish and a parent of three former KISD students, warned that “banning books for the sake of politics is a slippery slope.”
Addressing the board, she said, “Do you know how the Nazis began their campaign against the Jewish people…It started with the banning of books and ideas. Then the burning of books.”
Another parent expressed support for censoring books, saying, “you have a wall of people behind you, the real majority.”
