An English teacher in Guilford, Connecticut assigned Eightball #22 to a freshmen student as a makeup reading assignment. When the parents of the student complained about the content of the book, the teacher was placed on administrative leave, and then resigned from his position.
The New Haven Advocate has run a thoughtful defense of Eightball #22 and Dan Clowes here.
What is equally (if not more so) appalling is the harassment that the student in question has suffered at the hands of her peers, due to the incident causing the departure of a well-liked teacher. The story about the students and parents has been printed in this article by the New Haven Register.
This is horrible. I wish that things like this would promote discussion, but instead a comic book is misrepresented, a teacher loses their job and a poor teenage girl becomes the target of her classmate’s cruelty.
What a bloody mess.
Taken on its own, while not pornographic, it is maybe inappropriate to be giving that to your student. Taken in context, with the school assigning a pervy filthbag like Bukowski as summer reading for that exact same age, then no, it’ s not even inappropriate.
Comment by Ford MF — October 1, 2007 @ 8:22 am