A Mississippi school district is the most recent in America to ban Harper Lee’s classic American novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Last week, Biloxi, Mississippi made the decision to pull the novel from its eighth grade curriculum, but still keep it in the library.

The school board claimed the reason for this was that some of the language used in the novel made some students uncomfortable. Although the exact “language” they were referring to wasn’t specified, it can be assumed they’re talking about the use of the n-word, because so many other schools have banned the book for the same reason.

The whole idea of banning this book for this reason is ridiculous. Isn’t the point of using that language supposed to be to make the reader uncomfortable in some way? The author chose to include that word for a reason.

It’s almost baffling that this kind of censorship is still happening in this day and age. The school board should be exposing their students to these kinds of books because it can help them to be more aware of the world.

When you remove books like To Kill a Mockingbird from the curriculum, you are also removing the chance at a good conversation. The book holds certain messages and themes that still manage to be extremely relevant, even 57 years after original publication.

Although the school board claims it can teach the same lesson with different material, it still doesn’t make up for the lesson they’re teaching these students. They are showing them that it’s okay to simply ignore a dark part of our history, and our present. This specific text holds the ability to have an impact on anyone willing to read it with an open mind, an experience the school system has taken away from their students.