Lesson prompts call for 'Huckleberry' ban

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A school lesson in North Richland Hills, Texas, on "Huckleberry Finn" has prompted a call for the literary classic to be banned from area classrooms.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram said Wednesday that after a Richland High School class discussed the repeated use of a racial slur in "Huckleberry," the class' lone black student objected to the educational lesson.

Those complaints from Ibrahim Mohamed, a 17-year-old junior, led to the creation of the Coalition to Stop the N-Word and a call for the book's removal from the school district's curriculum.

The group also has called for the school district and the teacher behind the lesson plan to apologize in writing.

Ellen Bell, associate superintendent for the Birdville school district, told the newspaper the teacher had only sought to educate students on literature and history by discussing the controversial word.

"The purpose was to talk to students about language that could be hurtful and see it in the historical context in which it was written," Bell said. "The teacher was trying to be sensitive to students' feelings and not to be hurtful."