A Florida school board has put the use of Jewell Parker Rhodes' "Ghost Boys," about a young Black boy in Chicago who is fatally shot by a white police officer while playing with a toy gun, "on hold" after police complained about its anti-cop "propaganda."
The book, published in 2018, four years after Tamir Rice was killed, was taught in a fifth grade class at an elementary school in Coral Springs, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Jerome narrates the book from beyond the grave and, at the end, tries to convince the cop's daughter not to hate her father for being racist.
"This book convinces its reader - the children of our community - that police officers regularly lie as they routinely murder children, while painting police officers as racists," local Fraternal Order of Police Director Paul Kempinski wrote in a letter to the Broward County School Board.
© Provided by New York Daily News"Ghost Boys," by Jewell Parker Rhodes, a book about a young Black boy in Chicago who is fatally shot by a white police officer while playing with a toy gun.
"Ghost Boys," by Jewell Parker Rhodes, a book about a young Black boy in Chicago who is fatally shot by a white police officer while playing with a toy gun.
School Board member Lori Alhadeff told the Sun Sentinel that "assignments and readings are on hold until further notice."
"The timing of whether (or whether not) to implement this subject matter must include parents and ultimately be a decision by the parents of each student. I do not feel 'Ghost Boys' is appropriate for fifth graders," she said.