Recently, in a Burke County school in Morganton, North Carolina, Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner came under fire, for being “inappropriate” reading material for high school students. In one scene of the book, a young boy is brutally attacked and raped. Because of this scene, some parents now want the book removed from the tenth-grade reading list.

Although these parents mean well, they are hardly doing their children any service. By deciding that a book such as The Kite Runner unsuitable, these parents are insulting the intelligence and maturity levels of their children. They are high school students; they will soon be adults, and they are old enough to handle the subjects discussed in The Kite Runner. Some scenes in the book are somewhat hard to stomach, but that hardly constitutes it being banned.

The novel has important themes and morals, which students can learn a lot from. Attempting to censor it does much more damage than good. By doing so, these parents will only increase interest in the book, and will make the students who haven’t been assigned to read the book interested as well. Soon the decision will be made by the school board about whether or not the novel will be removed from the reading list. If the members of the school board have any sense of what is right, they will throw out this case and keep The Kite Runner on the required reading list.

-Zhaleh Breen