Nashville School Bans "Harry Potter" for Potentially "Conjuring Evil Spirits"

Don’t worry, they checked with some exorcists first.

Fitting in at school is hard enough, but can you imagine how awkward it would be if you accidentally conjured evil spirits after reading Harry Potter aloud in your school library?

Thankfully, the pastor of St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville has spared his students the unrecoverable embarrassment of summoning the works of Satan in a public area by banning J.K. Rowling’s (*checks notes*) 22-year-old book series.

According to the Tennessean, Rev. Dan Reehil sent an email to staff explaining the ban, saying, "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," he continued.

Of course, that’s presuming the students pronounce the spells correctly in the first place.

But before you go on to make fun of the man for jumping to absolutely wild conclusions, he clarified that he consulted several exorcists in both the United States and Rome, who also recommended the books be removed from the school library. Argue with that.

St Edward’s is a pre-K to eighth grade school that just opened its new library, and as the superintendent told the Tennessean, was in the process of “weeding out some of the content”.

Honestly, it’s probably for the best, because if any of their students were to accidentally call an Acromantula into existence, or find their very own Moaning Myrtle stuck in the toilets, it’d be an administrative nightmare to sort out.

Header Image: Warner Bros. & iStock.com/barkarola