After being used in classrooms for decades, the classic novels “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” have been banned from a school district in Virginia after a parent in Accomack County complained about the use of racial slurs in the books.
“There’s so much racial slurs and defensive wording in there that you can’t get past that,” the mother stated at a school board meeting. “Right now, we are a nation divided as it is.”
Combined, the novels feature the n-word more than 250 times.
Some parents agreed the books should be banned. Teresa Wilkins, another mother whose children are in the Accomack County Public School system said, “It’s in a book and they’ll feel that they are able to say that to anybody, and so I don’t feel that that should be done.”
Not everyone came to this conclusion though. Parent Donna Natoli stated, “I think we’re sending a message to our children that if you don’t talk about something, it doesn’t exist.”
As of now, the books have been banned on a temporary basis, and soon a “review committee consisting of the principal, the library media specialist, the classroom teacher (if involved), a parent and/or student, and the complaint will convene.”
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