A Texas school superintendent is making waves online after firing back at a parent who slammed teachers for assigning a book with some swear words. John Kuhn, head of the Abilene Independent School District, shared his frustration on Facebook, where the post quickly went viral with thousands of shares and reactions.
It all started when Kuhn spotted a social media rant calling his teachers “demons” over a reading assignment from the award-winning novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book tells the story of a nine-year-old boy coping with his father’s death in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. A single chapter from it was picked for a freshman honors English class to challenge advanced students—since the alternative 9/11-related passage was too basic for them.
The controversy? The excerpt includes the word “s–t,” a vulgar term the teacher didn’t even know about, a silly joke about talking butts (the kind that makes nine-year-old boys like the character giggle), and “p—-,” which the boy uses as his cat’s name. Kuhn pointed out that the teachers approved it with a colleague and saw it as a fitting, one-off use of language in context. He gets that the book might not suit younger kids and could be limited to 17- or 18-year-olds, but he defended the educators’ good intentions.
What really got to Kuhn was the over-the-top backlash. In the comments on that original post—which has since been deleted or hidden—he noted the irony: people hurled insults like “a-s–ts” at teachers (worse than the words they complained about), tossed around “wtf” and “WTH,” and no one called them out for it. “Selective outrage, anyone?” he wrote, highlighting what he sees as double standards in the heated debate over profanity in schools and book assignments.
Kuhn tied this to bigger issues in Texas education. He criticized Senate Bill 2 for creating vouchers that he says drain money from public schools, Senate Bill 13 for forcing teachers to catalog every classroom book, and House Bill 8 for shaking up standardized testing. He also called out Senate Bill 12 on parental rights forms and House Bill 3372. To him, these laws are part of a push to centralize control from Austin, sidelining local leaders like himself and fueling attacks on teachers.
This isn’t just a one-off gripe—it’s part of a national trend since the COVID-19 pandemic, where school boards and states have ramped up parental rights policies for more transparency and limits on classroom content. Kuhn told Fox News Digital the original offending post is gone, and he’s putting “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” on hold. A committee will review it to decide if it’s okay for the district’s library. He mentioned it’s generally rated for ages 14 and up.
Kuhn’s post shines a light on the tough spot teachers are in: they work hard to engage advanced readers with meaningful books like this 9/11 story, only to face online fury over a few edgy words. It’s a reminder of the ongoing battles over book challenges in Texas schools and what parents expect from education.
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