FEMA pulls 'Scary' coloring book from web site

From usatoday, The Federal Emergency Management Agency has removed a controversial coloring book titled A Scary Things Happened from its web site following criticism that some drawings of the 9/11 attack might upset some children, the Albert Lea Tribune in Minnesota reports.

But Rose Olmsted, coordinator of the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team that produced the book after tornadoes hit Glenville, MN, in 2001, defends the project. She tells the Tribune that it was clearly made "as a tool for parents to use with an adult to help children put meaning to what has happened because words are hard to come up with."

The cover, a child-like drawing, features the Twin Towers, with one tower already on fire and a plane approaching the other. A similar image is inside the book for children to color.

It has been used to help children cope with disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the California wildfires and was applauded by a FEMA official in Chicago in 2003, Olmsted says.

Olmsted says she was told by FEMA that the book was being pulled as part of a redesign of the web site and that there had been a complaint from a parent about some of the images in the book.

"We removed the content from our Web site after reviewing www.FEMA.gov for appropriate material," said FEMA spokesman John Shea in a statement. "FEMA for Kids assists children in understanding disasters and we will continue to post appropriate material that supports its mission."

Go here for a PDF of the entire coloring book. I rock.