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Killing Mr Griffin Banned

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Edgar De Paz Mr. Mahan Eng 112 19 March 2024 Killing Mr. Griffin was published in 1978 by Lois Duncan. The book has won several awards, including the 1982 Massachusetts Children's Book and the 1982-1893 Alabama Camelia Children's Choice Book Award. The book has been challenged and banned many times since its publication date and still is today. Duncan has published other notable books such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Summer of Fear. The book is about a group of high school teenagers who despise their English teacher, Mr. Griffin, who is very strict and overly critical. They plan to “prank” him by kidnapping him to teach him a lesson and making him fear for his life. However, this did not go according to plan and it resulted in the …show more content…

In 2000, Killing Mr. Griffin was the 4th most challenged/banned book of the year for “violence and sexual content.” For example, a challenge at Sinnott Elementary School in Milpitas, California, claimed the novel had “no redeeming qualities.” It has also been banned and challenged for themes of drugs, murder, smoking, peer pressure, and lying to authority.”. A more recent example occurred in 2001, when the Greenville school board in South Carolina voted to keep the book in its schools after a challenge. A very recent challenge occurred in August and September of 2023. The book was banned and removed from the shelves of several Mason City Community School District, Iowa, for “sexual content.” Mason City Community School Districts in Iowa would later reinstate the book along with other challenged titles after backlash from using ChatGPT to review the books. I disagree with the challenges and the bans of this book. Firstly, the “sexual content” is a strange one to me, there are no sexual scenes in the book. The characters never do anything more sexual than kiss. There is no reason that this should be a reason to challenge or ban this book. Secondly, the “violence” is a fair reason, however, Duncan is not overly graphic with the violence that takes place in the story. She uses it to enhance the story and

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The most used reason for its banning is its depiction of graphic sexual content, for which it has been banned in over 15 locations. The first banning by the Alabama State Textbook Committee took place in 1983, because the book encouraged “bitterness and hatred against whites” (“Banned 52”). The most recent “banning” happened in 2016 at Lemont High School, Illinois, with parents remarking that “it’s very explicit”; however, students may choose to opt out of reading the book and read other books instead (Lotus). Overall, the book deals with sexually explicit passages, with excerpts alike that are deemed unsuitable for younger

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