Course on Graphic Novels Doesn’t Need a Warning, Professor Decides

A literature course including four graphic novels that one student found offensive won’t get a disclaimer after all. The Redland Daily Facts reports that the professor at Crafton Hills College has decided not to add a warning to the syllabus about the graphic novels’ content.

Complaints from a student and her parents last month prompted the community college’s president to announce that the professor, Ryan Bartlett, had agreed to alter the syllabus in an effort to “avoid this situation in the future.” The student, Tara Shultz, took issue with four books: Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel; Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1, by Brian Vaughan; The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll’s House, by Neil Gaiman; and Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.

“I don’t want to ban the books or burn them,” Ms. Shultz had said. “I don’t believe that is the right thing to do. You can read whatever you want to read. That’s the beauty of the First Amendment. I’m not trying to do anything like that at all. I just don’t believe they need to be in an English course.”

Mr. Bartlett decided not to include a disclaimer, he told the newspaper by email, because “if we put a disclaimer on this course, then we should put a disclaimer on all literature courses, and I do not feel comfortable going down that slippery slope.”

The president, Cheryl A. Marshall, said in a statement that the college wanted to accommodate Ms. Shultz, but that “including a disclaimer is not the answer.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Shultz’s father, Greg Shultz, told the newspaper that the fight isn’t over. “I will take whatever means necessary to counter family disruption in all of its forms,” he said.