Teacher fired for having Eighth Grade kids read graphic novel version of Anne Frank's Diary.
Posted by
Qale
Sep 20 '23, 17:03
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An eighth-grade teacher was fired from Hamshire-Fannett ISD, just south of Beaumont, for reading an illustrated version of Anne Frank's diary.
The district confirmed with KFDM-TV that the teacher was released Sept. 13 and there has been an active investigation. The unnamed teacher was said to have read and made students read aloud parts of "Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation."
KFDM, the CBS affilliate in Beaumont, reports the section read in class was about male and female genitalia.
The book, which was first published in 1947 as "The Diary of a Young Girl," has been part of the curriculum in schools for decades when discussing the Holocaust. It details the journey of Frank, a German-born Jewish girl, as her family is in hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands. Some adaptations of the book omit sexually explicit content.
District officials have claimed the adaptation of the book in question was never approved, but KFDM reports it was on a reading list sent to parents at the start of the school year.
An email sent to parents Sept. 12 said the book was inappropriate and the teacher would communicate an apology. A district spokesperson told the TV station a substitute teacher had been filling in and a full-time hire was in the works.
Amy Manual, a parent of students in the class, expressed her disapproval of the reading to the TV station. She said she heard the teacher laughed at the student's discomfort when having them read.
"I mean it's bad enough, she's having them read this for an assignment, but then she also is making them read it aloud and making a little girl talk about feeling each other's breasts and when she sees a female she goes into ecstasy, that's not OK," Manual said.
This particular version of Anne Frank's diary adapted by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky has come under fire before. It was removed from libraries in the Dallas-Forth Worth area's Keller ISD last year and from the library at Vero Beach High School in Florida.
On social media, discussion on the school's decision to fire the teacher has erupted.
On X, formerly Twitter, one user wrote, "Teachers getting fired for doing their job and trying to properly educate their students is outrageous. Society reaches a new level of absurdity every day."
Another posted a page of the book with sexually explicit content with the caption, "We have no problem with the diary of Anne Frank. This is what's in this version:"
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