The McMinn County School District voted 10-0 to ban the use of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel 'Maus', which teaches people about the holocaust. The book has been used for the last two years in the district, but the Art Spiegalman book is now removed from all the schools in the district.
McMinn County is known for its dairy production (home of Mayfield Dairy Farm). In fact, cows and farming were used in the arguments against 'Maus'.
Members of the school stated their objections to the book citing it as having some curse words (like the "GD word", and a drawn portrayal of an unclothed woman (even though all the characters are mice).
The entire official minutes of their meeting can be read here.
Board member Stephen Brady compared teaching the Holocaust to teaching kids about cows with a book called 'Hoard's Dairy".
I can pull out a picture book of cows, but is that really at the level I need to make me have those deeper conversations about cows?
-school board member Stephen Brady
While the board talked about all the other things they do to teach about the atrocities of the Holocaust, they had nothing to replace 'Maus'.
Board member Jonathan Pierce- I believe I heard Ms. Knight say a moment ago that there’s not a book that can replace this one.
Steven Brady- Not without redoing this whole module.
There is a national debate going on about school systems trying to exclude curricula that shield children from feeling uncomfortable about terrible parts of history, no one at this meeting stated this was the purpose of banning the book. It mostly seemed focused on the use of "bad words".
Jonathan Pierce- I ask that you go back to your Hoard’s Dairy example. Not one time do I see a vulgar word in that paragraph there.
The banning has made national headlines and many people are upset ith the decision.