Teacher Fired for Reading Excerpt from Illustrated Diary of Anne Frank to Eighth-Grade Class

The book has previously been challenged in Florida schools as the Anne Frank Foundation expresses concern regarding "denial of history"

An unidentified Texas teacher has been fired after she read aloud an excerpt from the illustrated version of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl to her eighth-grade reading class, according to local news outlet KFDM-6.

On Thursday, Mike Canizales, the communications director and community engagement coordinator for the Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District (IDS) in Hamshire, Texas, told the outlet that “a version of The Diary of Anne Frank book that was not approved by the district was read in class.”

"The teacher was sent home [Wednesday]. There is an active investigation," added Canizales. PEOPLE reached out to Canizales for further comment.

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky, was released in 2018. It includes intimate passages that had been edited out of Frank's original diary, which she wrote beginning at age 12 and which was first published in Frank's native Dutch in 1947.

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Anne Frank was a Jewish teenager murdered at age 16 in the Holocaust after her family hid for two years inside the secret annex of an Amsterdam house. Her diary, which was retrieved after her death and first published in English in 1952, is regarded as a critical piece of historic literature and is often taught in school when students learn about the Holocaust.

Amy Manuel, whose twin sons are in the eighth-grade reading class in Texas, told KFDM-6 she objected to the book's content regarding Anne's attraction toward another girl, saying of the passage in which Anne writes about her fantasies, "that's not okay."

Following the incident, the school sent an email to parents Tuesday night, which reads, “It was brought to the administration's attention tonight that 8th grade students were reading content that was not appropriate. The reading of that content will cease immediately,” per KFDM-6.

Related: Georgia Teacher Fired for Reading Book About Gender to Fifth-Grade Class: 'Censorship Perpetuates Harm'

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This is not the first time the book has drawn criticism. In April, a Florida high school removed the book after a parent affiliated with the conservative group Moms for Liberty complained. In recent years, conservative groups across the country have moved to ban books to which they object.

In an April statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) about various challenges to the graphic adaptation, the Anne Frank Fonds — the Switzerland-based foundation that controls the copyright to her diary — said it was concerned that ignorance about the Holocaust and "denial of history are on the rise, especially in the United States.”

The foundation also defended the inclusion of Frank’s original writing by saying, “We consider the book of a 12-year-old girl to be appropriate reading for her peers.”

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