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A school in US state of Florida bans book about killing of Black boy by white police officer

Ghost Boys tells the story of a bullied, 12-year-old Black boy who is killed by a police officer while playing with a toy gun and watches from beyond the grave as his family and community unravel. (Photo by NCAC)

A school in the southeastern US state of Florida has banned a book chronicling a fictional tale of a Black child shot to death by a white police officer following protest from a local police organisation.

Reports in the US media said the Broward County school board had moved to stop classroom assignments and discussions on “Ghost Boys” by Jewell Parker Rhodes at Coral Springs Elementary School after a local union of police complained about it.

The book weaves the past with the present, chronicling the long, tragic history of persecution faced by African-Americans persecution and discrimination at the hands of law enforcement agencies in the US.  

In the book, a 12-year-old Black boy, who faces bullying from fellow students at the school and is killed by a white police officer, narrates the changes to his community after his death.

The book had been part of in-house discussions by fifth-graders at the school, local daily Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.


It said members of the school board wrote to officials at Coral Springs Elementary School saying that they did not deem the book appropriate for primary school children, even though a nonprofit ratings board described it appropriate for kids 10 and above.

A spokesman for the local Fraternal Order of Police in a letter to school officials termed the book "propaganda that pushes an inaccurate and absurd stereotype of police officers in America.”

Earlier, Kingsburg Elementary Charter School District in California had also removed the book from its curriculum after a parent complained about the "political views" expressed in the book. 

Police brutality in US

It comes as the incidents of violence perpetrated by the police in the US, mostly against the people of color, have seen an alarming surge recently.

The brutal killing of George Floyd, an African American man, by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020 brought the issue into limelight, sparking anger, outrage and large scale protests across the country.



However, there has been no let-up in incidents of racist violence in different states of US, mostly perpetrated by police against African-Americans and Asian-Americans.

This disconcerting surge in attacks on people of color in the US in recent years have been attributed mostly to former US President Donald Trump's racist rhetoric.

His successor Joe Biden's brief stint so far has been marked by protests over a spike in murderous assaults by police, with people calling for police reform and an end to racial injustice.


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