Officials from a British Columbia school district said the book's message violates an arbitrator's ruling barring political messages and comes amidst lingering labor tensions between teachers and management.
This Republican file photo by staff photographer Michael Gordon shows Yertle, of "Yertle the Turtle" fame, on top of a pile of other turtles at the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden at the Quadrangle in Springfield. The popular children's book about a turtle has been deemed too political by a Canada school district in the midst of an ongoing labor dispute between teachers and management.
Dr. Seuss's "Yertle the Turtle" has been deemed too political for a Canada school district emerging from a simmering labor dispute, according to Toronto's Globe and Mail.
The line that drew fire — "I know up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here on the bottom, we too should have rights" — was included in material that a teacher brought to a meeting with management after she received a notice about union material that was spotted in her car on school property.
The quote comes from Seuss's 1958 classic tale about Yertle, king of the pond turtles, who stands on his subjects in an attempt to reach higher than the moon. But Prince Rupert School District officials in British Columbia claim the line is a thinly veiled political statement that shouldn't be displayed or worn on clothing at the school — especially with lingering tensions from a settled labor dispute between a teachers' union and government officials in the northwestern province.
Dave Stigant, the Rupert School District's acting director of instruction, said the Seuss quote fell within the realm of political materials that were banned from province classrooms after a 2011 arbitration decision, The Globe and Mail reports. New education legislation that took effect last month ended the teachers' strike and ordered a government mediator to strictly enforce the anti-political-material mandate.
"It's a matter of legality and living up to our obligation to children and their families," Stigant said, adding that the "Yertle" quote was "contextually" political.
Yertle's quest for a higher vantage point ends when the turtle at the bottom of the stack burps, sending Yertle hurtling to the muddy ground below.