Annabelle Jenkins walked onto the stage during her graduation ceremony from the Idaho Fine Arts Academy in the West Ada School District with a book tucked into her sleeve.
When she stood before West Ada Superintendent Derek Bub, she slipped out the book — the graphic novel of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault — faced the audience and smiled, and handed it toward Bub. It was one of 10 books the West Ada School District had removed from libraries earlier in the school year.
Bub did not take the book. Jenkins dropped it at his feet and walked off the stage without shaking his hand.
A TikTok video she posted of the incident that night garnered over 24 million views and more than 15,000 comments.
I haven’t read the graphic novel of the Handmaid’s tale, but I don’t know if I would read the book to 14 year olds.
This reads like the ugly kind of censorship. Where: 1) without knowledge of the graphic book, calling for its universal removal from school libraries. 2) not knowing if 14 year-olds should read it, ban it (i.e. ban all books that can’t be read by the youngest library patron; a notion few books could survive). And 3) belittling people (calling those who disagree with uninformed censorship “ass-mad up the wazoo”).
Now there is a little nuance to the post, but it’s outweighed by crude assessments.
