Shortly after the school year started in September 2018, Dennis showed his students The Hobbit, a film that was not related to the curriculum.
Later that month, he showed his class To Kill a Mockingbird. Kushner said this movie was also not curriculum related, and was not “age appropriate,” as it “deals with racism and rape,” and contains the use of the “N-word.”
In B.C., the book To Kill a Mockingbird is listed as a secondary school resource for students in Grade 10 or above.
A parent of one of Dennis’s students expressed concern about the appropriateness of To Kill a Mockingbird to the school’s principal. The parent was also a teacher at the school, and Dennis later told his class that a parent who was also a teacher had complained about the movie being shown.