Idaho high school graduate Annabelle Jenkins handed her district’s superintendent a copy of “The Handmaid’s Tale” on May 23. Annabelle Jenkins made sure to keep her plan secret, hiding the item in the sleeve of her gown as she walked across the graduation stage.
“It is an attack on our libraries as spaces that we are restricting what kind of information our communities and our students can access,” Jenkins told The Washington Post. “The original text of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ remains a valuable resource for our high school students, allowing them to explore and critically analyze its content in a manner appropriate for their developmental stage,” Scheppers said in her statement.“overshadowed the celebratory occasion for the Class of 2024, its graduates, and all their accomplishments as students, as a school, and as a district.
The situation escalated on Dec. 13 when Idaho Fine Arts Academy Principal Chris Housel removed Nault’s adaptation from the school’s shelf because, unlike other schools enrolling high-schoolers in the district, the academy serves students in grades six through 12, Scheppers told The Post.