The latest issue of Nintendo Power has been banned from a middle school library in Ohio because of the cover, which features a piece of artwork from Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. The cartoon image of a woman holding a gun was seemingly too extreme for the shool, which yanked the issue and started rolling a rather large snowball of controversy.
After Principal Brian Sharosky pulled the mag from Roxboro Middle School Library, Ohio's ACLU stepped in with condemnation. Executive director Christine Link argues that literature should never be taken out of a Library on the whims of one offended individual.
"Literature should not be removed from a school library simply because one person may find it inappropriate," she states. "[the school board should] immediately order that the magazine be reinstated."
Unfortunately, the school board is backing Sharosky on this matter, helping to keep Nintendo Power #234 away from young hands. It seems that this decision could go so far as to result in a lawsuit.
"The principal doesn't get to say, 'Whatever I say goes.' There's got to be some mechanism by which decisions are made and a process of review," explains ACLU legal director Jeff Gamso. "Or maybe tomorrow it'll be ' "Hamlet" -- that's an iffy play.'"
Considering you could probably find all sorts of juicy murders and graphically violent content in any school Library, it does seem rather arbitrary to pull the magazine. I wonder, if it was a book on Al Capone, featuring an image of a man holding a gun, would that have to get yoinked as well?
Contest:
9:40 AM on 03.24.2009
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"Literature should not be removed from a school library simply because one person may find it inappropriate... [the school board should] immediately order that the magazine be reinstated."
Agree. As a matter of fact i belive there was a court reading that state that principals can't just wank out certain literature just because he dosen't like the artical.
But's cool for dad to own 48 shotguns!
Is...is that a typo?
Both of you are correct.
Banning anything short of pornography in a school library is going down an iffy path, methinks.
give it 15 or 20 years top and our generation will be in power.Than we'll be able to train our kids into cold-blooded killers and Pedophilic racists with these killing simulators! ...Wait what?!
C'mon, you know ever boy in that school doodles guns in their spare time, you just took away an example to work with, way to ruin their creativity principal hardass.
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait just a second here!
Since when have video game magazines been in school libraries?
...
God damn spoiled kids. Back in my day all we had were Radio Shack and Woolworths adverts for our video game fix! ... and Sears catalogues for our more... primal fix...
AND WE WERE GRATEFUL DAMMIT!
PLEEEEEEEEEEASE WORK BBCODE.
FINE I'LL DO IT THE RIGHT WAY.
I'm cynical and I love it.
Not to mention that this story shows that same level of moral stupidity we've all come to adore. At least it gives evidence that Nintendo has finally got that hard edge back to the casual observer. Hamlet, a play where everyone dies horribly: that's completely fine. But a name like Nintendo!!! and with a gun on the front!! God we should be terrified.
Oh, spoiler alert.
1. They won't pull hamlet from the library because nobody reads it for leisure. Simple.
2. Ironically enough, the authority of the time hated Shakespeare with a passion, for the simple reason of OMG violence! Sound familiar?
3. I wonder if they ban books such as Eragon, for example, in which a 16 year old goes around disembowelling people and breaking their necks while his dragon roasts them to death? How about Harry Potter, in which Malfoy gets his chest ripped open and Fred/George (can't remember which) loses an ear in a bloody way. Of course not, because they make kids read.
She'd love that.