Charita Goshay: The trouble with Anne Frank

The Keller Independent School District near Fort Worth, Texas, has walked back a decision involving the removal of "Anne Frank's Diary," an illustrated adaptation based on "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl."

It isn't the first time Anne Frank has caused trouble in school.

Perhaps no two teenagers in history have triggered as much angst in public education as she and Emmett Till.

The book had already been approved, but under a new policy that allows parents or concerned community members to challenge books for their suitability, three of the district's board members voiced concern because the adaptation includes references to teen sex and homosexuality based on excerpts from Frank's diary.

While it may be news to some, teenagers ― yes, even girls ― have been curious about sex and sexuality since Fred Flintstone was a junior-varsity rock climber.

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No one is arguing that access to materials shouldn't be based on a child's age, maturity level, overall relevancy and value. But let's also not pretend that creating an apparatus to remove books isn't risky business.

The nonprofit PEN America contends that while parents have the right to have input on reading material, most bans are not in keeping with best practices created by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the American Library Association.

PEN America also found that: "Of all bans listed in the Index, 41% (644 individual bans) are tied to directives from state officials or elected lawmakers to investigate or remove books in schools. This is an unprecedented shift in PEN America's long history of responding to book bans, from the more typical pattern in which demands for book removals are initiated by local community members."

Try as we might, we cannot shield and bubble-wrap children from every unpleasant, unjust or horrific situation, nor should we. That a 14-year-old girl might openly muse about sex and sexuality is the least-challenging aspect of Anne Frank's diary. Hers is a narrative of innocence juxtaposed against unspeakable cruelty and mayhem; one in which the definitions of wrong and right have been turned on their heads.

It is the story of what happens when extremism, fanaticism and hatred are not resisted but absorbed into a nation's bloodstream, making a mockery of its collective morality and destroying all manner of basic human decency.

It is a warning of what happens when misinformation is allowed to go unchallenged in the hope that in time, susceptible people will magically come to their senses.

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That Frank and millions of innocent people ― including gays ― perished in concentration camps across Europe, is far more obscene than any diary entry based on a young girl's imagination about sex.

There are those who still deny the Nazi Holocaust ever happened. They include the kinds of people who burn books and wear "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirts with no shame.

Such demagoguery is the height of immorality.

In the the case of "Anne Frank's Diary," in response to public pressure, wiser heads have prevailed. The district announced that the book will be returned to shelves. A total of 41 titles are under review, including the Bible, which also was removed but has since been returned to school library shelves.

In an age in which technology is king, it's difficult enough to convince children that there still is much to be learned through reading. Frank's story is timeless because it's a narrative of hope. Despite all, she still believed that people were essentially good.

It's a lesson we all could learn.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Anne Frank's story still seen as too much for some school districts