The latest issue ofNintendo Powerhas beenbanned from a middle school libraryin Ohio because of the cover, which features a piece of artwork fromGrand 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 keepNintendo 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?
