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School BANS Harry Potter books from library because they contain ‘real’ spells

2 September 2019, 10:39

One school has banned Harry Potter from their library. Picture: Getty Images

Harry Potter books have been removed from one school because they contain 'real' curses and spells.

Students at a US school will no longer be allowed to read about the adventures of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley after they were banned for including ‘real spells’.

Reverend Dan Reehill at the Catholic school in Tennessee explained that after consulting with several US and Roman exorcists over J.K. Rowling's series, he was advised to remove them from the library.

In an email to the parents of students at St Edward Catholic School, he reportedly wrote: "These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception.

“The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”

The first Harry Potter book was released in 1997. Picture: PA Images

Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, confirmed to The Tennessean that the Reverend has the final say on the matter, as the Catholic Church doesn’t have an official position on Harry Potter.

She said: “Each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school.

“He’s well within his authority to act in that manner.”

Ms Hammel then explained that the school had just opened a new library which led them to clear out some of the books.

She then added that kids were still welcome to read the books outside of school time.

“Should parents deem that this or any other media to be appropriate we would hope that they would just guide their sons and daughters to understand the content through the lens of our faith,” Hammel said.

“We really don’t get into censorship in such selections other than making sure that what we put in our school libraries is age appropriate materials for our classrooms.”

The Harry Potter series was Published between 1997 and 2007 and follows the story of a young wizard and his friends through their time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

It also documents Harry's struggle with the evil Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who plans to overthrow the Ministry of Magic.

According to pottermore.com, over 500 million copies of the novels have been sold around the world.