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Teachers in one Florida county have paused the use of a novel about police brutality after the local police union called the book “propaganda.”
“Ghost Boys,” by Jewell Parker Rhodes, is, according to Rhodes’ website, a story of 12-year-old Jerome who is shot and killed by police after they mistook his toy gun for a real threat — not unlike the Tamir Rice case in 2014. The story is told from the point of view of Jerome, who is now a ghost watching the ripple effects from his death play out in his community.
“Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time but similar circumstances. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life,” the author’s website states. But
Paul Kempinski, director of the local Fraternal Order of Police, was not a fan.
In a letter to the Broward County School Board, posted on the local union’s Facebook page Thursday, Kempinski details what he deems incorrect about the book.
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