Graphic Novels: Threat or Menace?

Fifty three years after Dr. Fredric Wertham argued in "Seduction of the Innocent" that comic books were corrupting the morals of our youth, a public schoolteacher has been forced to resign -- and faced the threat of criminal prosecution -- for giving a student a graphic novel as a reading assignment.

And not in some Bible Belt backwater either, but rather in a prosperous Connecticut shoreline community whose residents include more than a few faculty members from nearby Yale University.

This is how the story was initially reported on September 20 in the local daily, the New Haven Register:

GUILFORD -- The parents of a freshman student whose teacher resigned after he gave her a sexually explicit illustrated book said Wednesday their daughter has been the target of harassment from fellow students, and they want the school district to do more to clarify the issue with other parents.

The girl's father, who asked that his family remain anonymous because it has already been the target of criticism, described the graphic novel that English teacher Nate Fisher gave the student as "borderline pornography."

The father also noted, later in the story:

"I personally don't ever want him teaching again," he said. "There is nothing that he could say that would account for this. ... That poor judgment is something you can't take back."

So at this point you're thinking, this must be some kind of sleazy predator of a teacher, right? Good thing they got that scumbag out of there, right?

Well, not exactly.

The book, one of a series of comic book novels by Daniel Clowes, is called "Eightball #22."

* * *

The following week, my friend Chris Arnott at the alternative weekly New Haven Advocate wrote a story on the controversy, noting:

Register reporter Rachael Scarborough King shorthanded Clowes' complexities by reporting that the comic "includes references to rape, various sex acts and murder, as well as images of a naked woman, and a peeping tom watching a woman in the shower." Shocking stuff -- though the sex and bloodshed aren't in fact depicted, just talked about, and the nudity is part of a poignant and decidedly non-titillating scene in which a sensitive young woman is afraid her lover will leave her because of an unsightly birthmark. In any case, graphic acts of sex, murder and voyeurism can be found in countless classic works of literature, by such acclaimed writers as Charles Bukowski, Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, Ayn Rand, Leo Tolstoy, Gore Vidal, Nick Hornby, Theodore Dreiser, Sam Shepard, Alice Walker, Cormac McCarthy, Jack Kerouac, D.H. Lawrence, John Cheever, Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Plath.

All those writers, as it happens, appear on the official list of 2007 Summer Reading suggestions presented to students by the Guilford High School English department. So do disgraced sex-and-drugs-addled memoirist Augusten Burroughs and bestselling erotic mystery novelist Janet Evanovich, most of whose books have a hot sex scene within the first few pages. It's an enlightened, engrossing, wide-ranging list that might actually attract more young people to read.

Chris also noted:

That cause wasn't helped by the New Haven Register's Sept. 21 "Soundoff" readers poll question, "Are comic book novels too graphic for children?" Some readers responded with such uninformed comments as "Guilford schools and comic books -- it figures," and "Absolutely, period. It is frightening that this event could occur in our educational system."

* * *

On October 17, the Register followed up with "good news": the teacher whose career has most likely been destroyed by a perfect storm of overzealous parents and cowardly school administrators will not be criminally prosecuted.

Oh, happy day!

Guilford Police Deputy Chief Jeffrey Hutchinson said the department received a complaint about Fisher Sept. 4 and has now closed its investigation.

"Basically, we were informed, we investigated it and had contact with the state's attorney's office, and they said there's nothing they're going to prosecute, so we closed the case," Hutchinson said. "There's no criminal charges pending; there's none anticipated."

Hutchinson said he cannot release details of the investigation because it included "uncorroborated allegations."

* * *

Fisher said he gave the student the graphic novel, which features a number of intersecting stories told in comic book form, because she had not done a summer reading assignment. It was part of a collection of his own books that he had in the classroom. He read the book in a graphic novels course when he was a student at the University of Connecticut and had not reviewed it for some time, he said.

"I was literally looking for ... something that she could read over the weekend, something quick, because all the kids had a test on Tuesday, the weekend after, and I didn't want her to start the year behind in her school work," he said. "In my mind, any book that you give to a student that's going to create a reaction like this in the student's family is an inappropriate book, so you'll never hear me say this was an appropriate thing to do. I just think the way it was handled wasn't right, and it was bad for everybody."

After the student's parents brought their concerns to the school administration, Fisher was placed on leave and resigned about two weeks later. He said he was surprised at the school district's reaction to the situation.

"The administration made it clear to me that they didn't want me back, and at that point, I wanted to do what was in the best interest of my career, as well as the town of Guilford, the students and parents and everybody," he said. "I never thought that I would be pulled out of my job without any due process to be able to defend myself or give my version of the events of what happened. I felt like they really didn't take into account anything about my career that had happened before."

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella was not available for comment Tuesday afternoon. In September, he sent an e-mail to high school parents in which he said the graphic novel "rose to a level of unacceptability that is far beyond that of materials normally questioned in educational circles."

This, remember, from a school district whose official reading list includes Bukowski, Ginsberg and Augusten Burroughs. But wait, there's more!

The mother of the girl who received the comic book has asked to remain anonymous because the family had been criticized after Fisher's resignation. She is satisfied with the outcome and thinks the school district "did a great job."

Initially, she said, she was concerned about the teacher's intentions because he gave the graphic novel to only her daughter. But she added that she now believes he made a mistake.

"It is what it is, and we really hope that his intentions were the best, and if that's the case, then we hope that he's able to go on and find another job and continue with his life," she said.

Gosh, isn't that just so very gracious of her? After raging through the guy's life like a California wildfire, she allows as how it would be okay with her if he eventually somehow manages to find something salvagable as he picks through the wreckage she's left behind.

* * *

Finally, yesterday, almost a month after their initial sensationalistic coverage of this shameful episode, the New Haven Register featured an editorial which gently chided the Guilford school district -- which, while commendable, probably would have mattered a lot more oh, say, a month ago, when the Register's front page was portraying the teacher as a possible pedophile.

Guilford High School's teachers and students should have expected better from school system administrators.

Instead, the school's out-of-proportion reaction to a teacher's well-intentioned makeup assignment for a student turned an internal academic issue into a public controversy, complete with a criminal investigation.

At least the teacher, Nate Fisher, will not face criminal charges for assigning a student a graphic novel to read over a weekend to make up for her failure to complete a summer reading assignment.

* * *
Fisher may have shown questionable judgment in assigning the graphic novel. Given the parents' reaction, Fisher says the assignment was inappropriate.

Inappropriate, perhaps; but, not worthy of a criminal investigation nor ending a promising young teacher's career.

Falls somewhat short of the obvious: the teacher should be hired back, with an abject public apology and full back pay.

Originally posted at This Modern World.

Comments

[L. Rozner]

As an amatuer cartoonist, I always make it a habit to monitor pro-comic censorship websites, whether they be left or right. I believe at least 85-90 percent of the time, it's from the right. It pretty much comes from the usual suspects: The American Family Association; The Parents Television Council (why they're interested in comics when they have TV to occupy them, I don't know); sometimes, the Catholic League; basically, it's those groups JK Rowling recently reffered to as on the fringe right (which to me is pretty much anyone whose last name is Bozell, Wildmon, or Donahue.)

[Pneumaticus]

Well, for graphic, disgusting, obscene, and downright pronographic, all that child has to do is read the newspaper every day, especially the news about how our elected government represntatives behave. And we're actually paying them to do that stuff.

[DEEKphx]

I'm a school librarian. It's the most dangerous job I've ever had. Rank, angry ignorance is pretty much the baseline condition for the average American family, and it's just a matter of time until some nutjob complains about the graphic novels in my library. I'll say this about the graphic novels--- if you're knocking them, you haven't read them. The kids at my school are ravenous for them; kids who would not be reading at all otherwise. The rating system is pretty reliable--- that poor schmo who got persecuted obviously forgot to consider that. It's a blessing in disguise for the guy--- teaching has jumped the shark as a profession. The whole thing is on self-destruct, thanks to NCLB and the federalization of education. And of course, the angry assholes like this stupid kid's parents.

[Guitarsandmore]

If we expect 18 year olds to die for us in Iraq, shouldn’t they understand ahead of time all that life is about? And if we want them to die for us, then aren’t they ready and qualified to read a dirty book?

If we want 18 year olds to make intelligent choices in the voting booth, shouldn’t we make sure they understand everything there is to know about life before they vote?

[transendentilist]

You could live to be a hundred, and still not know ALL there is to know about life. But I get your point. I agree.

[marleysghost]

It's the parents who haven't a clue. And the girl is dumber for it as well. For all the clamor about not educating our children, parents do NOT want their children educated. They do not want them to think - only replicate their own ignorance.

Teachers who try to stretch the bounds of this mental inbreeding are told they are not wanted. Forget hiring teachers, hire hall monitors and put the kids on front of drone computers and just drill and kill them into mindlessness.

It's what these overprotective parents want anyway. They can't think for themselves and they don't want anybody else to, either. Guilford must be in the Stepford School District.

[ObamaEdwards]

People who raise their children in ignorance are not doing them a favor. The teacher was being generous, giving a girl who was a poor student some reading material she might actually find interesting enough to finish. Clearly, it was still too much for her tiny, daddy-protected brain. Instead of completing the assignment, she ran to her parents.

If a graphic novel is a threat to your baby girl's innocent mind, you've already messed her up. The state should look into removing the poor child from a home where she's being denied a decent education. Give her a reading test, and if she can't pass it, put her into foster care.

[zannamar]

Working in a bookstore, I see parents buying children Manga graphic novels all the time. All of these novels have ratings on the back. Parents don't even bother to look and see if the graphic novel they are buying is rated 16 or older for their 10 year old kid let alone if it is rated Mature( hint to parents: both are shrink wrapped so that it can not be easily read in the store and all Manga Novels have ratings on the back on the books) Parent just don't take the time to read or discuss what their children are reading. I bet these parents have bought their daughter books like these without even realizing it. The shocked parents posting here need to check out their kids bookshelves. Wake up!

[BamaRainbow]

I'm not sure what bookstore you work in, but the only manga books I've seen that come shrinkwrapped have explicit sexual content in them. I get a number of manga (yaoi, to be specific) titles from my local comic shop, and only those with "Mature" or "M-18+" designations come shrinkwrapped from the distributor. If the books feature YA (Young Adult, 16+), OT (Older Teens, 16+), Teen+ (13 and up), they come in unwrapped. Most of the product I've seen at a couple of the Big Chains are also unwrapped unless they carry the "Mature" rating. (One of the first yaoi-themed manga that I bought was "Fake" by Sanami Matoh. It carried an "OT" rating and I was able to peruse it in the store--Barnes & Noble--before buying it, meaning it wasn't shrinkwrapped. Along the same lines, Rumiko Takahashi's classic "Ranma 1/2" features a fair amount of female topless scenes--not to mention a male character with a fetish for female undergarments--yet it carries the "T+" rating and is unwrapped.)

[zannamar]

Doesn't change the fact that all the books are rated but parents can't be bothered to look at what their children are reading and discuss the subject matter. I think it's okay for teens to read them as long as their is discussion. Manga is one of the fastest growing genres and parents need to be more aware about the situations portrayed in these books and not think that because it's a "comic book" it's the same as "Archie comics". You can't just expect to throw your kids into an adult world at 18 because a lot of them are living adult situations in highschool without any guidance.

P.S. If you can name a 14 year old let alone a 16 year old that hasn't seen a women's breasts, I would be surprised.

[akzidenzgrotesk]

honestly, i don't think it really matters much any more anyway. a lot of the really popular graphic novels are being made into movies now (sin city, 300, 30 days of night, etc), and they're rated R, so pretty much any teenager can go and see them if they want. personally, i would think that graphic sex and violence acted out by people on a big screen would be a lot more "disturbing" than stylized artwork in a book you can just close if you get overwhelmed. but then again, i don't think teenagers (and preteens for that matter) should be nearly so sheltered.

[MajorKong]

OK, for all you neo-conservatives out there, 300 started out as a graphic novel.

[zannamar]

Actually it started as a historical event.

[MajorKong]

True, but the graphic novel and the movie were both highly dramatized re-tellings of the historical event.

For something a little more historically accurate (but still fiction) I'd recommend Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield.

[Jane]

When my son was in 9th grade, he was assigned "Speak", about a new girl in school who gets raped. He read it. He learned something from it. I think its good to have him reading books with complex themes and talking about them in class. On the othe hand, when my daughter was a Freshman at Cornell U., her English teacher assigned her to write a paper about one of her own sexual fantasies. I told her not to do it, and she chose another topic. But I thought he was out of line.

[InternationalObserver]

heh heh - you gotta laugh (to stop from crying)

You *so* had that English teacher's number. Well done! I wonder how many other female students just blindly did the assignment though. And I bet if the teacher was challenged he would be all casual: "oh I assign that topic every year - you're the first person to have a problem with it"

yeah, right ...

[Economike]

Who needs school anyway. Where has it gotten civilization. More weapons, more pollution, more bullshit.

[Guitarsandmore]

Pornography is wrong for kids. But there is another issue no one is talking about. We expect children to be children right up until they are 18 years old and then SUDDENLY they magically become adults overnight.

How can we expect children to grow into adulthood and learn to master all of the complexities of adult life successfully if we shelter them from everything that is adult during the growing up years?

At 18 we expect young adults to be able to vote, fight in Iraq, drive a car, go to work, get married, have children, own a gun, understand right from wrong, obey the law, and in some states drink alcohol.

Only about half go on to college so let’s not pretend they are going to learn about adult things while they are away at college. Wouldn’t it be better to have some education while they are still in school?

[Dunnage]

I've lost sleep reading graphic novels.

[mouselion]

All written language has its roots in graphic images. Most people don't even begin to appreciate this fact (or that every physical thing in their world requires design).

People look down on graphic novels and comics because they think that it is intellectually inferior compared to simply reading a written document. They don't think about what it takes to produce this multi-media art-form and the principles involved (which includes good writing skills). If they did, they might realize they are the intellectually inferior, incapable of creating effective graphics --and possibly even incapable of writing a book.

People need to be more open-minded about expression that comes before, and, also that art is not a narrowly-defined phenomenon.

[mouselion]

Correction:
"People need to be more open-minded about expression that comes before..." them, "and, also that art is not a narrowly-defined phenomenon."

[Aolain]

This whole thing reminds me of what happened last year here in the great tabbacy a-chawin', Good-Book believin' (cept that Song of Soloman, of course) State of Texas.

A teacher took her students (middle school, I think) to the Dallas museum of art. The students (going to another exibit) passed an ancient greek nude statue. This so horrified the parents of some of the kids, the teacher was canned.

They should all get over it. Or, Heaven forbid, you take your prescious little darlings to the Vatican--gasp! "look Martha, the Cistine ceiling is pornographic!!!"

[PonchoAndLefty]

I sincerely hope the teacher is able to find another position and continue his career without too much loss. However, I have to say that many people in jobs today have been terminated without just cause. There are no real protections for workers period. Most states are "at will" employers and until this changes any one with the authority to terminate can do it on a whim. With teachers their is a difference in that in the public school systems union agreements and tenure status can prevent "without cause" terminations. For the majority of us in the working world we all see people who are fired for personal or political office insider influences unrelated to the performance of their work. Tom Tommorow seems to be somewhat green when it comes to the brutality of the workplace. He only finds it appalling here because it's a teacher and it had a comic book at the center of it. Welcome to the real world Tom.

[InternationalObserver]

yup, I've always marveled at your 'fire at will' employment policy. For the complete opposite come Downunder. Here you can only fire someone after you've given them three written warnings!! And they have to be for the same thing ie if they're rude to a customer, late for work, and don't do a task - it doesn't count. They have to be rude to a customer (etc) 3 times *and* have received a written warning after *each* instance of rudeness before you can fire them. And then they Employment Court (yes we have one) can still find (if the fired employee takes it to Employment Court) that the Employer did not do enough to help the employee rectify the problem (ie they should sent the employee on a training course) and will award damages to the fired worker.