This Alaska School Board BANNED “The Great Gatsby” and Other “Hateful” Books

When a school board takes the dramatic step of banning books – removing them from the curriculum, libraries and district classrooms, these tomes almost always become popular online and via local stores. This is exactly what happened in Alaska in April when one school board decided to censor 5 famous classic works and remove them from approved instruction lists. Violence, racism and sexual content seemed to be the most commonly used reasons, but the school board was vague when describing “why” each book would be removed from the curriculum.

From “The Great Gatsby” to “Catch-22,” the books were accused of containing harmful content that could endanger students. According to Jim Hart, Vice President of the school board, these books were considered to be harmful to the student readers. There is no word on what classics or modern stories will replace Gatsby and friends in the now less literate Alaska school district.

Here are the books considered too “harmful” by the school board.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
The celebrated poet and storyteller earned a place on this list for her signature work, which the school board feels could be harmful to students.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
This humorous classic coined a term and defined one of the most commonly experienced situations within an organization. The school board felt that this bok contained too much violence to be included in the curriculum.

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
This Vietnam era novel covers experiences in the Vietnam war; board members felt it was too violent for students.

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The 1920s tale of excess is a romantic one – but was banned for being overtly sexual, by the same district that allows far racier teen titles in their libraries and curriculums.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Citing “bad language”, this allegory for racism was discarded along with the rest. Often a jumping off point for discussions about race, this book is no longer welcome in some Alaskan classrooms.

Local booksellers immediately saw a surge in purchases of these banned books. According to Mary Ann Cockle, owner of Fireside Books, she had to reorder these classics multiple times once the ban was announced.

“People who had read the books years ago are buying them to read again and to give away,” Cockle said Tuesday. “Our biggest outpouring of support are people buying the books and donating them or leaving them to us to distribute for free.”

After national attention and plenty of protests, two of the banned books have been reinstated. While students are still being “protected” from Gatsby, the Invisible Man and the Caged Bird, both Catch-22 and The Things they Carried have been reinstated.


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28 responses to “This Alaska School Board BANNED “The Great Gatsby” and Other “Hateful” Books”

  1. school boards – home owner associations – county administrative centers – the list goes on and on

    Power Grabs one and all – take school boards: who pays for them and the school systems in each county ? TAXPAYERS
    Where did the land for the schools, playgrounds and much more land (like the lands Senator Lee of Utah wants to sell off) It was GIVEN to the states, then to school districts by the U.S. Government but who governs them with an iron fist ?
    SCHOOL BOARDS They spend OUR money and take OUR HOMES away if we don’t pay them, BUT they can lockup these grounds with no reason, there is nobody overwatching these SCHOOL BOARDS

    • First comes book banning & next will be book burning.
      What anyone reads is entirely up to an adult & certain books which maybe to old for children it is up to parent(s) as to whether or not to allow their children to read them.
      My parents started me reading @ age 4 & by age 10 I had read over 2000 books. My Dad vetted my reading materials to make sure they were age appropiate & he would even ask my questions about what I had read for my opinions & also to help me with any misconceptions.
      If I start to read something & I don’t like it I stop reading it.
      The same goes for tv, movies & radio if I don’t like with I see or hear I change the channel.
      Too much government oversight on a daily basis can kill democracy on every level local, state & Federal this city council is forcing its social & political views on everyone & needs to be stopped.

  2. What books are on the “do read” list?
    If you ban books,soon you’ll burn books. Once you burn books, you will burn bodies.
    If you want to live in a free society, you have to let EVERYONE express their ideas. Even the ones you don’t like.

  3. Does any one remember “If you do not study history you will repeat it”?? Maybe the Left is destroying History because they WANT to repeat HISTORY.

  4. If it hasn’t already happened, you can be sure it well. Somehow someway somewhere sometime you’re Trippin will find out who you really are. And they will hate you. As will your grandchildren. How does that make you feel?

  5. No one should have the right to ban any book. This limits the mind and the experience. It is bad enough that they no longer teach old English and have bastardized the Constitution not to mention Shakespeare.

    What we have here is “1984”, also a banned book. What is this double speak.

  6. But this same school board will approve the new WHO order about teaching masturbation to elementary aged children?

  7. What right do these people have to tell you what you can read and what you can’t. I believe children have parents for that not some stupid person on a board!! These kids need to know the outside world, not just the bubble they are being put into!

  8. and let’s not forget that they’ve previously banned probably the greatest American Novel, Huckleberry Finn. I had english teachers in both HS and college who recommended rereading that book every year for new insights and they were correct. Of course,since American history before the 1960s is not taught any longer, a novel illustrating that history as Twain did must probably be equally verboten. Heaven forbid that the little snowflakes should be required to analyze and think for themselves.

  9. Does Piglosi and her trash group decide what we can read ? the communist piece of trash/ Can’t wait to read her obituary!!!

  10. the goverment has no buisness telling people what they can read.we live in a free country not a communist country that goes for our senators and congress men,and mayor,school board members. that includes you pelosie and shumer.

  11. So, I guess Mark Twain is totally outlawed. When we get down to the Bible, wake me up. The truth is, the cartoons the kids watch on TV are much more violent than anything in these books. The Books allow window into a past that while we may not like what we see, are instructions as well as to how to avoid these mistakes. “Catch 22” is exactly where these idiots are. They are trying to shield kids from bee stings while they are caught in a crossfire of 9mm handguns. I know these liberal nannies want to protect the kids and they feel it is their duty to shield them from this literature, but come on man? If the go see “Black Panther”, they will hear words, see violence and overt sexuality. Heck, “Frozen” has is full of violence and overtly sexual images. These four “Classics” allow us to see the world, as it was in the days of our ancestors. The world was different then. It allows perspective. Critical thinking is what we have far too little of in today’s curricula. Stop inserting yourselves into the role of Censor and open your minds. Allow the kids to experience the past so they can compare to the future. We will never know where we are going until we understand why we left where we were.

  12. So, I guess Mark Twain is totally outlawed. When we get down to the Bible, wake me up. The truth is, the cartoons the kids watch on TV are much more violent than anything in these books. The Books allow window into a past that while we may not like what we see, are instructions as well as to how to avoid these mistakes. “Catch 22” is exactly where these idiots are. They are trying to shield kids from bee stings while they are caught in a crossfire of 9mm handguns. I know these liberal nannies want to protect the kids and they feel it is their duty to shield them from this literature, but come on man? If they go see “Black Panther”, they will hear words, see violence and overt sexuality. Heck, “Frozen” has is full of violence and overtly sexual images. These four “Classics” allow us to see the world, as it was in the days of our ancestors. The world was different then. It allows perspective. Critical thinking is what we have far too little of in today’s curricula. Stop inserting yourselves into the role of Censor and open your minds. Allow the kids to experience the past so they can compare to the future. We will never know where we are going until we understand why we left where we were.

  13. Stop this B.S. now. This is heading toward socialism dictatorship. These books are great reading. These kids play video games that are more violent. The way they talk to each other. No respect no manners. The movies are far more vulgar than the books. I remember when they banned Feirheigth 51. Vote the Domocrats school board members out.

  14. All public schools should be shut down no more principals, no more superintendents . There is not one reason all school aged kids in america can’t use there computers to reach there teachers. As for socializing kids can join sports teams, book clubs, anything they enjoy doing. That would also help with all the school ground bullying. From what I learned from my kids who bye the way just got out of the public school system, have both said most of the bullying came from teachers who didn’t have any business in their students private lives. They should have been the ones who are the adults. Don’t get me wrong the teachers were just repeating the gossip that goes around during school board meetings. Of course most teachers are heroes but you know that it only takes one bad roomer to destroy a child’s life.

  15. Oh yeah, right! Ban these well written classics and replace them with all the communist, socialist rotten crap being published now! That will guarantee that the kids today turn out as bad as the rotten ones burning down buildings and rioting! Makes perfect sense. This world is riding the evil train!

  16. Vote out democrats and see how freedom is regained and secured to us the people..no more being sheep led astray.

  17. VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS NOW!!! WE, INCLUDING YOUNG PEOPLE, READ WHATEVER WE WANT!!! DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT “SCHOOL” IS THE ONLY PLACE THAT BOOKS CAN BE OBTAINED??? AND DOWN WITH INSANE CORRUPT NARCISSISTIC “little man trump!!” KICK HIM OUT!!!

  18. Well, what grade are these books for? Can the kids even read, our nearby city school district has a 48% graduation rate and you can’t even hire the kids, they can’t write a sentence or read a book. Maybe the “violence” or “sexual content” might get the high schoolers to read. We didn’t have these books mentioned in the article but we had a list of recommended or required reading actually because teachers would ask questions about the books and there were always summaries of books required. I did get to read Shakespeare which we acted out in class (loved it), Mark Twain, and there were a couple books I can’t remember the titles but I do remember the weirdness reading aspect of some. My Mom said, “What are you reading?”. I always said, “It’s required for school.”. “Oh.” she would say because she knew the classics, the aged tried and true were the best and they were. These books got me reading Little Women, Black Beauty, and into science fiction. My reading comprehension did me well in college when I had to write papers and I fell back on figuring out what the concept of the written materials were. I ended up being a teacher and a consultant to libraries because of the forced reading in school. Of course I didn’t realize the board was picking them out, I thought the teachers were picking them out and the list was sent home with us to our parents every, every year during the summer so parents had time to object if they wanted to and I have no idea of any objections. They were always classics sometimes tougher reading and comprehension than others but that was the fun of discussions in class.

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