I find it AMAZING that these publication are constantly called "Graphic Novels" when people say they're just silly comics; but are then called "comic books" when something serious like this comes up.

The teacher was an absolute idiot. He didn't give a student a piece of controversial literature, he gave a student a very graphic Graphic Novel. The fact that Daniel Clowes wrote it doesn't mean its automatically a safe-read for all audiences. Assuming so is absolutely stupid on the professor and BoingBoing reader's parts. If JK Rowling were to author " Harry Potter 69 - Harry Rapes, Fucks and Kills the Elven Princess DeSade" , I don't think it would magically find its way to America's classrooms. Just because an author is safe, doesn't mean all their work is.

I remember in High School art, our teacher would show us the 'safe' Mapplethorpe photos and bring up his other work as being 'inappropriate for discussion in a high school classroom , but amazing art to read up on until college". She knew the boundaries of what she could and couldn't teach in the classroom, and how to cover her ass.

This also wasn't a course assignment, nor a class discussion , with a lesson plan or concurrent critical thinking syllabus - it was a makeup reading for a summer assignment. We read a lot of 'racy' books in high school - and the teachers made damn sure that they covered their asses and had lesson plans about the sex , rape and drugs in place so it was taught in a constructive context.

A high school, middle school or even grade school student could easily handle this material, thats not the point. If a friend gave it to them, the parents would most certainly call up the other kid's parents and yell at them. The same thing happened here - except the friend was a teacher who made a monumentally stupid mistake.

Are the parents overreacting? Sure. Is the little girl really crying at home every night? Probably not. Could Eightball be taught in a 9th grade Eglish class ? Absolutely -- but it wasn't. The content is simply inappropriate for an unstructured assignment.

The situation played out exactly like it should have -- someone so stupid as to make this kind of mistake shouldn't be allowed to teach kids.