A school board in Virginia voted Thursday to remove a Sherlock Holmes novel from the sixth grade reading list because it is not age-appropriate.
The decision came after Brette Stevenson, the parent of a Henley Middle School student, complained that "A Study in Scarlet," the book in question, is offensive to Mormons, reported The Charlottesville Daily Progress.
"'A Study in Scarlet' has been used to introduce students to the mystery genre and into the character of Sherlock Holmes," Stevenson told the school board. "This is our young students' first inaccurate introduction to an American religion."
The Albermarle County School Board has reconsidered books before. Sometimes they remove books because of age-appropriateness, and sometimes they leave books on the list, Diantha McKiel, a board member, told the Daily Progress.
When considering this action, a committee was commissioned to study the Victorian work, and the board based its decision off the committee's recommendation that the book was inappropriate for 11- and 12-year-olds, the newspaper said.
"A Study in Scarlet," the first book in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective series, follows Holmes and Watson as they investigate a murder, ABC News said.
"The work has been criticized for its depiction of Mormons being involved in murder and kidnapping," ABC reported. "One storyline depicts 'evil' Mormons forcing a main character, Lucy Ferrier, in polygamy."
The Daily Progress newspaper didn't specify any passages with this particular negative depiction of Mormons, but one excerpt from the third chapter reveals the thoughts of one character who would never allow his daughter to marry a Mormon because "such a marriage he regarded as no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace," reported USA Today.
The book, though removed from the sixth-grade list, will still be available to older students, USA Today said.
Not everyone agreed with the school board's decision, though. More than 20 former middle school students who opposed the removal of the book showed up at the Thursday meeting to defend it, reported ABC.
One ninth-grader, Quinn Legallo-Malone told the Daily Progress that the mystery novel was the best book he has read so far, and he is disappointed that it's being removed from the list.
"It's not what I had hoped for, but I guess they did what's best," Legallo-Malone told the newspaper. "I was capable of reading it in sixth grade. I think it was a good challenge. I'm upset they're removing it."
He hopes to see it again on his high-school reading list.
The protesting students didn't change the board's decision to remove the book. The board agreed the story carries a religious bias, reported Hawes Spencer for The Hook, another Charlottesville newspaper.
"It could put a group of our students in an unfair situation," board member Eric Strucko told Spencer.
EMAIL: rcampbell@desnews.com