Alaska School Board Removes 5 Books From Classrooms, Including ‘The Great Gatsby’

A first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair in the Olympia exhibition center in London on June 13, 2013. Oli Scarff/Getty Images

A school board in Alaska has voted to remove a number of famous books from district classrooms after they were deemed “controversial” and could potentially harm students, according to NBC News.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison were all taken off an approved list of works that teachers in the Mat-Su Borough School District could use for instructing students.