Ohio principal confiscates Chinatown Wars magazine, incurs legal strife

Chinatown Wars has only been out a few days and already it’s creating a brouhaha. Or, more accurately, a magazine about it is. More accurately still, the placement of a magazine featuring Chinatown Wars on the front cover is. Last year.

It started when principal Brian Sharosky of Roxboro Middle School in Ohio removed issue 234 of Nintendo Power from the school library because it contained material he deemed unsuitable for consumption by minors. The cover (pictured) features a woman holding a gun, and the game is of course for adults only.

A ruckus promptly ensued. On one side there’s the librarian, the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union and the American Civil Liberties Union, and on the other there’s the principal and the school’s board. The latter is crying, ‘censorship!’ while the former is crying, ‘profanity!’

The gist of the argument is that the principal ought to have followed the official protocol for challenging a publication in the library - today it’s a magazine, goes the case, but tomorrow it might be a Shakespeare play. To keep us from sliding down the slippery slope it’s necessary to defend every item of literature.

"Literature should not be removed from a school library simply because one person may find it inappropriate," said Christine Link, ACLU of Ohio executive director, in a statement last week.

The school, meanwhile, is denying that the principal is obliged to follow any such protocol, and the UCLU is saying that he is - but if he doesn’t have to, he should. The district is of course being threatened with legal action.

What do you think about this - should a principal be able to remove material he deems objectionable from a school library?