Anne Frank's Diary Must Be Removed, Per Texas School District

According to the revised guidelines approved at a board meeting last week, Keller ISD has been ordered to removed a total of 41 works for review, some of which are the Bible and the diary of Anne Frank.

A school district in the Fort Worth suburbs, Texas, has ordered its librarians to remove an illustrated edition of "The Diary of Anne Frank" from its shelves and digital libraries, joining the Bible and dozens of other works that parents challenged the previous school year. This order covers any and all books that have been challenged by parents. According to the revised guidelines approved at a board meeting last week, Keller ISD has removed a total of 41 works for review, some of which are the Bible and the diary of Anne Frank.

On Tuesday, the Keller Independent School District in Keller, Texas, received an email in which a district official requested a book cleanse. Additionally, a copy of the email was forwarded on to several other social media networks.

According to a message sent out by Jennifer Price, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for Keller ISD, "I need all books withdrawn from the library and classrooms by the end of today."

The removal of this book was the latest in a string of book removals that have been implemented at schools at the behest of conservative activist parents and school board members. It was the most recent in a string of book removals that have been implemented at schools at the behest of conservative activist parents and school board members who are challenging a variety of texts on grounds ranging from their LGBT-friendly content to their supposed connections to "critical race theory." The removal of this book was the latest in a series of book removals that have been implemented at schools at the behest of conservative activist parents and school board members. In the past, a few of these competitions were successful in capturing submissions that dealt with Jewish topics.

It stinks to high heaven. It has a terrible effect. According to Laney Hawes, a parent in the Keller district with four children, "It's legitimate book banning, there's no way around it." JTA reported that Hawes said this regarding the edict. "My heart goes out to the professors and the librarians," I say.

This year will see the release of "Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation," an illustrated version of the best-selling diary written by the adolescent victim of the Holocaust. The adaptation was created by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman and illustrator David Polonsky. The New York Times referred to the book as being "so fun and effective that it's easy to picture it replacing the [original] 'Diary' in classrooms and among younger readers."

According to Hawes, the district first disregarded the objection raised by the parents regarding the book when it was submitted in February. Even though Hawes does not identify as Jewish, she is included on a list of parents who may be asked to participate in a committee that evaluates book competitions.

When we first got our hands on 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' we laughed it off as a practical joke. But that wasn't the case," Hawes stated, adding that the criticism was that "the book shouldn't be read without the oversight of a parent." She had a hunch that the parent would have opposed the unabridged diary because it included references to female genitalia, same-sex attraction, and other sexual concerns that, in the past, have been judged "pornographic" by parents who have challenged their children's access to material. However, she could not be certain because the parent who had raised concerns about the book was absent from the meeting.

The Hawes committee decided to reinstall the book, and everyone assumed it would be the drama's final chapter. But after school board elections in May, right-wing activists with the support of campaign financing from a political action committee (PAC) associated with the conservative cell phone corporation Patriot Mobile were able to establish a majority on the board. They are currently in the process of updating the criteria for responding to parental book challenges, and in the interim, they have ordered that any books that were challenged by parents in the previous school year be removed from school libraries.

When asked for comment, the school district provided JTA with a statement that read, "At this time, the administration of Keller ISD is requesting that our campus staff and librarians evaluate books that were challenged the previous school year to determine if they meet the requirements of the new policy." "Books that are confirmed to fit with the new policy will be returned to the libraries as soon as it is confirmed that they meet the requirements," says the author.

There was no mention of Anne Frank or the Bible in the statement released by the school district. The Bible was one of the other books challenged in the district the previous year and will thus probably be taken from school shelves. Other novels, such as "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel, and "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson, are likely to be removed as a result of this recent development.

The school board has not provided any kind of timetable for when the new policy regarding reviews will be implemented. According to the policy now in place, any parent, employee, or "District resident" of the school district has the right to dispute "on the basis of appropriateness" any book owned by the district.

The district's actions were criticized by PEN America, an organization that defends literary free speech.

Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education programs for the organization, issued a statement in which he referred to "the sweeping attempt to remove these titles from classrooms and libraries on the eve of a new school year as an appalling affront to the students' First Amendment rights." "The attempt to remove these titles from classrooms and libraries on the eve of a new school year is an appalling affront to the students' First Amendment rights," "It is nearly hard to manage a school or a library that removes books in response to any complaint from any corner," the author writes. "[T]here are too many people who care about the books."

During an investigation conducted in 2021 by the Texas Education Agency into the Keller district, Republican Governor Greg Abbott made allegations that the district was providing children with access to books that had "sexually explicit" content.

Hawes, who stated that she had become an unofficial activist for district teachers and librarians who felt unsafe speaking out about such policies, stated that she had been contacted by more than a dozen educators the morning the email was sent out. Hawes also stated that she had become an activist for district teachers and librarians who felt unsafe speaking out about such policies.

One of her teachers broke down in tears and called her. "She admitted as much, saying, I can't even let them read 'The Diary of Anne Frank.'''

                Texas School District Pulls Bible And Diary Of Anne Frank Off Shelves