MCMINN COUNTY, Tenn. — An author is voicing his concerns after McMinn County's School Board decided to remove his book from their curriculum, preventing students from reading it as part of their Holocaust curriculum.
The Board of Education voted unanimously 10-0 to remove Maus, a Pulitzer-winning graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman. It depicts a Jewish man and his family as the Nazi regime rises to power. He eventually is arrested and is taken to Auschwitz, a concentration camp where 1.1 million people died. The book tells his experiences there and in the country.
The board points to profanity and nudity in the book as their main reasons for removing the literature from the classroom. When Art Spiegelman heard the news, he said he was shocked.
"I was flabbergasted and then angry. Then, flabbergasted again as I read the minutes for the McMinn School Board's discussion about the book," Spiegelman said.
After discussing options like redacting portions of the book if given permission by the author or replacing the book with another book about the Holocaust, board members decided to remove the book from schools altogether.
Spiegelman had trouble understanding why the nudity in question was considered suggestive in the first place.
"I'm insulted by the fact that a very small panel has picked on my mother, as a human in a comic book, committing suicide when I was 20," the author said. "There's a very non-sexual image of a body in a bathtub, blackened with blood. And if one really looks at that, genuinely, it's 1/3 of a panel, one can find something that might be a nipple. But I think anybody who has any sexual thoughts looking at that is really nuts."
The image is below:
Spiegelman finds the board's reasoning for nudity to be an 'interesting call;' however, he understands that the book can be an intense read in other sections. When the book first became popular as supplemental reading material for Holocaust studies, Spiegelman was opposed to it.
"Maus has been adopted into a lot of curriculum and schools. I don't object to it. But, I did at the beginning because I really did think this was only for adults," Spiegelman said.
He later warmed up to the ideas after seeing how much it taught the students about both the horrors of the Holocaust and life itself.
"It's taught classes about the dysfunctional family, how minorities are treated, psychological dysfunction, and Jewish studies and history classes," the author said.
In a statement, the school board said they "do not diminish the value of Maus as an impactful piece of literature." Yet they also said they stood by their decision to remove it. Their decision attracted international condemnation.
"I'm trying to not have the knee-jerk angry response that comes easily to me. But, to try to tune in to where the problems are," Spiegelman said.
He hopes to have the chance to talk with the school board, teachers and students directly.
"I will be glad to discuss with the school board, teachers and students. If an opportunity can be arranged for that to happen next couple of weeks, I'm all there for it," Spiegelman said.
10News made several attempts to contact school board members on Saturday, but have not heard back.
The district said it is still teaching about the holocaust, as outlined in their statement released on Thursday:
"The atrocities of the Holocaust were shameful beyond description, and we all have an obligation to ensure that younger generations learn of its horrors to ensure that such an event is never repeated."
However, the board has not shared specifically which supplemental materials they will use to teach the historical event.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon also spoke about Maus, comparing it 'Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.' She said they were essential books that helped her understand the atrocities of the Holocaust. She also said she first read it in middle school and went on to re-read it many times throughout her life.