Woman aims to pull graphic novel from Orange County school libraries
ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County mother Erin Huntley pointed out the violent drawings in the Japanese graphic novel Assassination Classroom. She is trying to get the book removed from Orange County's high school libraries.
"This one was brought to me by a parent at a different county in Florida, so I looked on Orange County Public Schools website to see if it was in Orange County Public Schools, and it was - in five high schools here," she said.
Assassination Classroom tells the story of a smiling space alien with tentacles who destroys part of the moon, then starts working as a schoolteacher. The alien is nearly immune to Earth weapons but challenges the students to try killing him while at the same time becoming a beloved educator to the group of misfit students.
Huntley's own children don't go to public schools but says she's concerned about what message the book gives the ones who do.
"I thought to myself first of all, we're very concerned about school safety. At the same time, we're also concerned about we need to recruit more teachers and retain them. And a message like this in the book is not helping that situation," she said.
The Orange County Public Schools website shows the district is currently reviewing the request to pull the book from shelves. Officials said there was no timeline for this process. Danny Morales, with comic book store The Collective, said the book was meant to be a satire.
"Over the course of time, they actually start to love him, because their grades get better, their prospects in life get better, so it actually does have some real learning, it's not just like a deadly class type of thing," he said.
A parent in Osceola County was also trying to get the book removed from school libraries there.
FOX35 contacted publisher VIZ Media for their take on the situation, we haven't heard anything back, yet. Morales said high schoolers who took time to read the book may be able to see the story in its intended context.
"It's set up for teens, it gives it the teen rating. I mean, we would have it in our manga section here. I wouldn't have it, like I said, in an elementary school library or in our kids' section," said Morales.