Mississippi school district removes ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ from 8th grade reading list

A Mississippi school district has pulled “To Kill a Mockingbird” from an eighth-grade reading list. 

According to the Sun Herald newspaper in Biloxi, Miss., the Biloxi School District removed Harper Lee’s classic novel from the reading list after it received complaints that certain language in the book makes some people “uncomfortable.”

“There were complaints about it,” Kenny Holloway, vice president of the district’s school board, told the newspaper. “There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable, and we can teach the same lesson with other books.”

{mosads}

“It’s still in our library,” he added. “But they’re going to use another book in the 8th grade course.”

The 1960 novel deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town during the 1930s, and uses racial slurs at times. The book won Lee the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and has long been a staple in classrooms across the country.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is listed on the Biloxi School District’s website as a core text for eighth grade English Language Arts. 

In a statement to the Sun Herald, Superintendent Arthur McMillan said that there are other materials available to teach state academic standards. 

“There are many resources and materials that are available to teach state academic standards to our students,” he said. “These resources may change periodically. We always strive to do what is best for our students and staff to continue to perform at the highest level.”