Censorship of important literature has always been an unfortunate  part of the American education system. However, Hillsborough High School, which includes novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby in its curriculum, has largely managed to avoid it. Sadly, this streak of literary tolerance has come to a screeching halt.

The Hillsborough Theatre Association had selected their annual fall play to be And Then There Were None, based on a mystery novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. However, after going through the whole casting process and scheduling all of the rehearsals, the Theatre Association was told by the school that they would not be allowed to stage the play.

The reasoning behind this decision? The original title of the novel, which was published in 1939 and has been changed twice, contained a racial slur towards black people. It should be noted that the original title of the novel came from a 1868 poem, which the novel revolves around.

While it is despicable that there was a time in history when it was socially acceptable to call African Americans horrible names, it is also a part of our history that we cannot simply block out.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” famed philosopher and essayist George Santayana said.

Even though some words are unpleasant and extremely hurtful, we simply cannot completely censor them from American education. At some point, people need to learn about the horrors from the past, in order to make sure they are not repeated.

Additionally, while it is true that the word in the original title was harmful, it is not present in the title or script of the play at all. In order for the average student to find the harmful word which caused the censorship of the play, he or she would have to do research to find the original title.

It is not fair to all of the hardworking students who have already invested so much time in the play to just rip it away based upon a word not even present in the script, and one that is an integral part of American history.

As a result of the lost time resulting in the play discrepancy, the play will instead have to take place in the spring. The Theater Association hopes to preform Almost, Maine.

Canceling the play will not change the fact that the word in the title exists, and is sadly still used today. All it does is completely devalue the hard work of all of the members of the Theatre Association, and over nothing.