To Kill a Mockingbird has long been a classroom stalwart. Harper Lee’s 1960 novel forces students to examine difficult yet important topics like racism and rape, but it has been struck off the syllabus at a school in Virginia following a complaint from a parent who feels its use of the N-word is harmful.

“I keep hearing, ‘This is a classic, This is a classic’,” the mother said at a school board meeting on 15 November, according to WPXI. “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.”

Both To Kill a Mockingbird and Mark Twain​'s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were temporarily banned pending a committee review, with the parent suggesting a board made up of other parents and teachers from diverse cultural backgrounds determines a list of books that are inclusive for all students.

She claimed her son couldn’t get past a page of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that includes the N-word seven times.