The parent in Accomack County Public Schools in Virginia said her biracial son was upset at having to read “Huck Finn,” which uses the racial slur 219 times.

“I keep hearing, ‘This is a classic, This is a classic.’ I understand this is a literature classic, but at some point I feel that children will not or do not truly get the classic part, the literature part, which I’m not disputing. This is great literature. But there are so many racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can’t get past that. And right now, we are a nation divided as it is…My son can walk outside and be called that name. We don’t need it in the school system,” the mother told the school board last month.