Eagle Forum trumps parents and common sense.

Salt Lake Tribune, Wednesday, July 11, 2012.  Utah section, page B3.

“Jordan school board to
apologize for school play”

I posted on this before, here, about Gayle and her cronies (allegedly) making up 5 parents (they never produced the letters or even names) that complained to them about the content in the high school production of “Dead Man Walking”.

Even though only one of the 700 comments to the school district by parents and patrons was a complaint, even though the school district received 100 calls complimenting the production, the Jordan School Board is thinking up ways to placate the bitchy few.

First, they are actually apologizing for putting on the play.  A very thought-provoking (oops, thought.  Bad word!) play that had already been watered-down for public school production.  If every school board across the country took the time and energy to publicly apologize to every group that chose to be offended by a school production, we’d have to pay for a second board to take care of the real business.  (NOTE: plays are re-written, with permission of the author, for “school productions”, with the specific intent to balance age appropriate content without diluting the story to the point of being meaningless).

Now the board wants to take it a step further:  change the process of how schools choose plays that they will produce.

Right now plays are picked by a school committee made up of parents and teachers, and then they have to clear it through a district committee.  But board member Carmen Freeman wants to hold open forums where the general public can comment on the choice of plays.

Now, generally I’m all for openness and public input, but parents already have input in the decision making.  Want to have a say in what plays get produced?  Get on the school committee that picks them.  Of course, you’ll have to be connected with that school somehow, someone from, say, 30 miles away in a completely different school district would have no say in what play your school puts on.

But shouldn’t the community the school serves have that power, not some wacko from Highland, Utah (unless it’s the high school in Highland)?

Two board members warned that they thought the public forum would make the process of producing plays too cumbersome, which would make it hard to recruit, and keep, good drama teachers.  I agree with them.