A Texas middle school teacher has been fired after assigning an unapproved illustrated version of Anne Frank's Diary to her eighth grade reading class. Per a report from KFDM, a spokesperson for Hamshire-Fannett ISD, located south of Beaumont, released a statement confirming the teacher was sent home on Wednesday after reading a passage from Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation in which Frank wrote about male and female genitalia. An investigation into the incident has since ensued.
"As you may be aware, following concerns regarding curricular selections in your student's reading class, a substitute teacher has been facilitating the class since Wednesday, September 13, 2023," read a district statement sent to parents obtained by KFDM. "The district is currently in the process of posting to secure a high-quality, full-time teacher as quickly as possible."
Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager, journaled her experiences as she and her family hid for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Her diary, which was published in 1947, has been used in schools for decades to educate students on the the Holocaust. While previous versions of Frank's diary omitted sections in which she wrote about sexuality, the 2018 graphic novel adapted by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky, remains faithful to the original text. Folman's parents are Holocaust survivors.
While district officials claim the adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary was not approved, it was included on a reading list sent to parents at the start of the school year, KFDM reports. The investigation will determine if the teacher pivoted from the original approved curriculum or if administrators were aware of the book being part of the class.
The unabridged version of Frank's diary has also recently sparked controversy in other Texas schools, including at Dallas-Fort Worth's Keller ISD where it was pulled from library shelves last year, along with the Bible. In Florida, the graphic novel adaptation was removed from a high school in Vero Beach earlier this year after a parent complained about its sexual content.
I remember in 7th grade watching a video which included real photos of the corpses from the Holocaust. Some were naked. I can remember the disclaimer that my teacher sarcastically provided, clearly annoyed that he had to, saying "Look, there are some truly disturbing images in this, but it is important to see them and understand what happened. You're going to see naked bodies, and if that's the part you can't handle, well... I don't even know what to say to you."