Danica Davidson
April 12, 2023 
Banning books has become a big issue in America, and manga are among the titles being yanked off shelves. Lately, Assassination Classroom has become a focus for the censors.
Three volumes of the Assassination Classroom manga have been taken from the Gifford Middle School library in Florida so students can’t read them. Jennifer Pippin, who chairs the Moms for Liberty Indian River County chapter, said, “We don’t want students to think it’s OK to kill their teachers.” Noting school shootings in America, she believed the manga is inappropriate.
In Assassination Classroom, an alien who is going to destroy the world is posing as a teacher, so students have to assassinate the teacher or face annihilation. It’s clearly a premise not based in any sort of reality. Pippin was also behind getting a book about Anne Frank, the famous diarist who died in the Holocaust, pulled from bookshelves.
The manga still remains on other library shelves in Florida, but the Citizens Defending Freedom organization has announced it will try to get those copies banned.
“We should all be able to agree that violence toward teachers and explicit sexual content is not something that schools should be glorifying or promoting, especially on taxpayer dollars,” said Kristen Huber, the organization’s National Communications Director.
But attacks on Assassination Classroom aren’t just happening in Florida. Wisconsin’s Elmbrook School District used to have Assassination Classroom in its electronic library. That changed last month after a parent made a fuss. Director of Library Services Kay Koepsel-Benning tried to defend the book but was ultimately ignored.
People are trying to get it banned in Pender County in North Carolina, claiming the book is an educational guide on how to kill teachers.
In Virginia, Delegate Tim Anderson is behind a bill that says school principals have to be able to tell parents what books in the school have graphic sexual imagery. Anderson gave Assassination Classroom as an example of why this needed to go into law.
Source: ANN
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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