{"id":472345,"date":"2025-10-04T00:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T00:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/472345\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T00:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T00:17:13","slug":"texas-school-district-yanks-holocaust-book-the-devils-arithmetic-over-dei-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/472345\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas school district yanks Holocaust book \u2018The Devil\u2019s Arithmetic\u2019 over \u2018DEI content\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

JTA \u2014 A school district in central Texas has removed \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u201d a classic young-adult novel dealing with the Holocaust, after reviewing books for material that could violate a new state law forbidding \u201cDEI\u201d classroom content.<\/p>\n

The novel was one of dozens to be removed after Leander Independent School District, in a suburb of Austin, undertook its review in part by using artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Leander ISD is far from the first district to remove books on Jewish subjects amid a dragnet targeting diversity- or LGBTQ-related themes. Over the last few years, districts in Texas, Florida and beyond have pulled versions of Anne Frank\u2019s diary; \u201cMaus\u201d; \u201cThe Fixer\u201d; and other Jewish books.<\/p>\n

Recently, another Texas school district, covering the Houston suburb of Rosenberg, placed hundreds of books \u201cunder review\u201d for potential violation of a different state law \u2014 including both \u201cMaus\u201d books and \u201cAnne Frank\u2019s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the Trump administration has joined Republican lawmakers in multiple states in calling for schools to be purged of diversity-related content.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think removing books like \u2018The Devil\u2019s Arithmetic\u2019 is a huge mistake, but it\u2019s understandable why a district administrator would do it in the current climate of fear and intimidation,\u201d Frank Strong, a teacher in Austin who also co-directs the advocacy group Texas Freedom to Read Project, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

People visit the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp, in Oswiecim, Poland, January 23. 2025. (AP Photo\/Oded Balilty)<\/p>\n

Many of the past cases have resulted from formal parent challenges, which Republican lawmakers have empowered in some places. But the use of AI in the Leander case signals a new frontier: one where automated technology, increasingly used in school districts\u2019 book ban decisions, could cause Jewish stories to be sidelined as part of a broad conservative resistance to stories that center characters\u2019 marginalized identities.<\/p>\n

Strong told JTA that he suspects \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u201d along with other books generally considered classroom staples like \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d and \u201cThe House on Mango Street,\u201d were \u201cflagged because questions of identity are central to its story. Which really highlights the absurdity of Senate Bill 12.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 12, signed into Texas law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September, is framed around \u201cparental rights in public education.\u201d The law places classroom restrictions on \u201cinstruction, diversity, equity and inclusion duties, and social transitioning.\u201d Among the law\u2019s provisions: Districts \u201cmay not assign diversity, equity, and inclusion duties to any person,\u201d and are banned from \u201cassistance with social transitioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrives before President Donald Trump speaks at an education event and executive order signing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ben Curtis)<\/p>\n

A growing number of districts in the state have shut down LGBTQ clubs as a result of the law. Others, like Leander, are removing classroom materials like books in response to it.<\/p>\n

According to a local news station, AI \u201cwas used in the initial part of the process\u201d of the Leander ISD review of hundreds of books. District administrators then made manual reviews before finalizing which books to pull.<\/p>\n

An email that district leaders sent to educators ordering the \u201cpause\u201d of the books, published by Strong on his blog, states that the materials \u201care not being permanently removed,\u201d but \u201care simply on hold while we seek additional guidance.\u201d The removals, the district leader wrote, are \u201cnecessary to ensure our curriculum remains in full compliance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list of around 40 books determined by Leander ISD to potentially be in violation of the law includes \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird,\u201d \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables,\u201d and books by Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin and S.E. Hinton.<\/p>\n

It also includes \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u201d the 1988 novel by Jewish author Jane Yolen about a young Jewish American girl who travels back in time to World War II-era Poland during Passover and is sent to a death camp. The book has received wide acclaim and become a classroom mainstay for teaching middle-grade readers about the Holocaust; it was adapted into a TV movie starring Kirsten Dunst. The book has not been formally challenged by any district parent, according to Strong.<\/p>\n

Initially placed on the district\u2019s list of approved class books for eighth-graders, the novel was flagged, in the district\u2019s words, to be \u201cpaused for review SB 12\u201d \u2014 the only eighth-grade book to be flagged as such. It was also pulled from a list of approved books for the school\u2019s eighth-grade book club, \u201cThe Past, Today: Historical Fiction,\u201d again with district leaders citing SB 12. A representative for the district did not return a JTA request for comment.<\/p>\n

A rubric used by the district to measure the books\u2019 appropriateness, viewed by JTA, has a long list of qualities found in books with a \u201chigh likelyhood [sic]\u201d of violating the law.<\/p>\n

An offending book, the rubric states, \u201cexplicitly frames representation as a lesson or guiding principle\u201d; \u201csuggests policy change or advocacy\u201d; frames the issue of representation \u201cas inequity requiring remedies or advocacy\u201d; \u201chistorically misrepresents or representative of a singular point of view of historical or present political conflicts\u201d; contains \u201cfrequent sensitive themes that has a high likelyhood [sic] of being viewed as inappropriate for grade\u201d; or is \u201cused in ways that elevate sensitive themes to instructional focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same rubric takes exceptional issue with books about gender, saying books where a \u201cstudent or character explicitly asks to be called by pronouns\/names linked to gender transition\u201d or where a \u201cpronoun\/name change [is] central to narrative\u201d should be pulled.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u201d the protagonist is referred to by a different name \u2014 though the same gender \u2014 after she travels back in time to assume the identity of a relative who died in the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

Leander has made headlines for book removals in the past. In 2021 the district was among the first in the nation to remove books at the behest of conservative parent activists. A \u201ccurriculum advisory committee\u201d at the time ultimately voted to remove 11 books, none of which was \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas is one of many states with a statewide Holocaust education mandate. In 2021, a district leader in the Dallas area told his teachers that a different state law would require them to teach \u201copposing\u201d views of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

What will really hurt teachers in the district, Strong said, is the need to quickly rework any lesson plans they may have devised around \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u201d even if the removal winds up being temporary.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers choose books like \u2018The Devil\u2019s Arithmetic\u2019 because students need books like \u2018The Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u2019\u201d Strong said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JTA \u2014 A school district in central Texas has removed \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Arithmetic,\u201d a classic young-adult novel dealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-472345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115313026603969060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}