Book Ban: Virginia Bans Sherlock Holmes From School Libraries

A Virginia school board has banned a Sherlock Holmes book from its school libraries, claiming the book is inappropriate for sixth grade students because it includes a section about Mormons in the 1800s and a community’s reaction to a non-Mormon man who wants to marry a Mormon girl.

“The Albemarle County School Board voted Thursday night to remove Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet” from sixth-grade reading lists. A parent of a Henley Middle School student originally challenged the book in May on the grounds that it is derogatory toward Mormons,” reports Aaron Richardson at The Daily Progress.

“Thursday’s vote was the culmination of the work of a committee commissioned to study the book and two discussions by board members.”

“More than 20 former Henley students turned out to oppose the book’s removal from the lists. Rising Western Albemarle High School ninth-grader Quinn Legallo-Malone spoke during public comment to oppose removal of the book. He called the work “the best book I have read so far.”

The Daily Progress adds,

“The board based its decision on the recommendation of a committee commissioned to study the Victorian work. In its report, the committee concluded that the book was not age-appropriate for sixth-graders.

“In her comments to the board, Brette Stevenson, the Henley parent who first complained about the book in May, said the work was not suitable as an introduction to mystery and deductive reasoning.”

USA Today adds,

While the newspaper did not indicate that any particular passage from the novel had been singled out, here is one extract from Chapter 3.

(John Ferrier) had always determined, deep down in his resolute heart, that nothing would ever induce him to allow his daughter to wed a Mormon. Such marriage he regarded as no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace. Whatever he might think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he was inflexible. He had to seal his mouth on the subject, however, for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in those days in the Land of the Saints.

 

Via Wikipedia:

“A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who would later become one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year. The book’s title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his sidekick Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story’s murder investigation as his “study in scarlet”: “There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”