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The Conversation
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Simon Ryan, Associate Professor (Literature), Australian Catholic University

Teacher sacked for reading bum book to students: the latest conservative book ban

Toby Price Mississippi
Illustration detail from the cover of Andy Griffiths' international bestseller, The Day My Bum Went Psycho (Pan Macmillan).

On March 1, 2022, Toby Price, an assistant principal at Gary Road Elementary School in New Byrum, Mississippi, faced a problem. The reader booked for a Zoom session for 240 grade two students hadn’t shown up. So Price grabbed one of his favourite books, I Need a New Butt, and began reading.

He was fired two days later.

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