Kudos: Parents In Tennessee Now Rise Up, To Contest A Public School Board's Banning Of A Holocaust Graphic Novel, For 13 and 14 Year Old Students...

Not one of the school board members, they each admitted later -- had even read the graphic novel before banning it. They accepted the word of one parent who said it had curse words in it, and "a dead naked body." Of course, that was a cartoon drawing of a dead mouse, on its back. The book-burners are always this. . . feckless.

Indeed, this is gratifying (and very responsible parenting, once the earlier "secret" banning decision was made public). To be certain, the fight is by no means over. Litigation, to be brought by the ACLU, is being prepared for middle district of Tennessee's federal trial courts, should the school board not relent -- this is a clear First Amendment case.

Here is the latest, from the AP outside Chattanooga, Tennessee:

. . .“It’s certainly about Jews, but it’s not just about Jews,” Spiegelman said earlier this week during a virtual discussion on book bans hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga that more than 10,000 people attended.

“This is about othering and what’s going on now is about controlling. . . what kids can look at, what kids can read, what kids can see in a way that makes them less able to think, not more. And it takes the form of the criticisms from this board,” he added.

For Alex Sharp, a librarian who lives in McMinn County, the board’s fixation on a handful of swear words misses the broader lessons students should learn while studying the Holocaust and other painful moments in history. It also makes no sense, she said, in an age when students have access to more objectionable material online.

“Yes, it has a few bad words in it, but in my opinion our kids are seeing way worse than that on YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat,” she said. “You have to remember they’re 13 and 14 years old. They’re not small children anymore, they’re breaching into adulthood, and we have to talk about these controversial topics with them so they grow up into empathetic human beings. . . .”

Onward, smiling -- on to a screening of "Belfast", followed by the grand-nieces' sleepover, up next!

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