By Steve Gorman

(Reuters] – Tennessee’s eighth grade school board voted today to delete the Holocaust-themed graphic novel, “Maus”, from their language arts curriculum. It cited profanity as well as nuance in Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece.

McMinn County Board Education, Athens (Tennessee), voted 10-0 on January 10, but received wide media coverage on Thursday due to Irony, which coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

By a vote of the board, the state-level curriculum evaluation that approved teaching “Maus” was defeated. Based on Spiegelman’s Holocaust-related experiences in Poland, Spiegelman’s parents depicted Jewish characters as mice and Nazi persecutions as cats.

This title, which was published in two volumes and became the first graphic book to receive a Pulitzer Award, 1992, comes from the German word “mouse”.

The author spoke out on Thursday about his initial reactions to the ban and called the action of the school board “daffily naive” in a CNN interview.

Spiegelman (73), said that the board seemed to have been “totally concentrated on some negative words that are found in the book” from the transcripts.

A statement was posted by the board on Thursday on the website. It stated that the book was being removed due to “its unnecessary use of nudity or profanity as well as its depiction and violence of suicide.” The panel also said that it found the novel “too adult-oriented for our schools.”

According to the board, “We don’t diminish the worth of Maus as an important and meaningful piece literature. We also do not doubt the importance teaching children the historical moral lessons and facts of the Holocaust.” The board stated that the administrators will look into other books that would be suitable for children in an “age-appropriate” manner.

Reuters was unable to reach the president of the school board for any further comments.

This ban is coming as Republican politicians across the country seize on “critical race theory” teaching – which places the history of institutionalized racistism in a wider instructional context.

THE BREATH OF FASCISM

Spiegelman claimed that the McMinn board transcript did not contain any indications of anti-Semitic motives. However, Spiegelman stated that McMinn’s board meeting transcript contained no indications of anti-Semitic motives.

Spiegelman refused to respond to Reuters’s request for comment. He said that there is only one illustration in the book depicting Spiegelman’s mother, as she was discovered after having “slashed her wrists inside the bathtub”. This happened around two decades after World War II. He stated that the image is tiny.

Some school board members stated that they are troubled by references to suicide, premarital sexual sex and violence in general, according to Jan. 10, minutes published online at the Washington Post.

It shows people killing children, not hanging them. Is it not wise or healthy for the educational system to promote such things? Tony Allman, a board member said that it isn’t wise or healthy.

Allman also pointed out Spiegelman’s previous cartoon work in Playboy magazine.

John Cochran, who is a Board member, said that while he enjoyed some parts of this book, he was unhappy with a portion in which the father talked to his son regarding losing his virginity.

“It wasn’t explicit but it was in there. The naked photos are visible, as well as the razor and the place where mom cuts herself. Cochran stated that you can see her lying in her blood.

Julie Goodin was an ex-history teacher and spoke at this meeting. In the transcript she stated that there is no pretty picture of the Holocaust. However, the graphic novel represented a powerful way for her to show a terrible time in history.

Lee Parkison (director of public schools), was also present. He suggested that the “eight curse words” and offending mother’s image could be removed, however, some members of the board raised concerns about copyright. Final decision was unanimous by the board to remove the novel.

In response to this news, U.S. Holocaust Museum celebrated “Maus’s” Twitter reaction (NYSE:) as playing “a vital function” in Holocaust Education through the “sharing of detailed and personal experience with victims and survivors.”