Tennessee School Board Bans Pulitzer-Winning Holocaust Book 'Maus'

A Tennessee school board voted unanimously to remove the Pulitzer-winning graphic novel “Maus” from its eighth-grade curriculum due to concerns about “objectionable language” and nudity in its cartoon depictions of the Holocaust.

The book by Art Spiegelman tells the story of his parents’ experience during the Holocaust as Polish Jews, including their imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.

Ten members of the McMinn County Board of Education voted unanimously on Jan. 10 to remove it from schools, according to meeting minutes posted on the school board’s website. The decision drew attention Wednesday after The Tennessee Holler published a report about it.

Director of Schools Lee Parkison opened the meeting by saying: “The values of the county are understood. There is some rough, objectionable language in this book, and knowing that and hearing from many of you and discussing it, two or three of you came by my office to discuss that.”

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One board member, Mike Cochran, argued that portions of the book were “completely unnecessary” and complained that the part in which Spiegelman’s mother dies by suicide is too graphic.

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The school board did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It denied the decision had anything to do with the book being about the Holocaust, according to The Tennessee Holler.

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/maus-banned-tennessee-schools_n_61f1ef6de4b0061af25a079d