High School Censors Swastikas [tr]

Reason ^ | Mar. 13, 2016 | Robby Soave

[sparklite2]

High School Censors Swastikas, Missing Entire Point of Satirical Anti-Nazi Play, The Producers

Administrators have ordered the removal of swastikas from a high school production of The Producers, the famous Mel Brooks film that makes fun of Nazism.

The New York school district that oversees Tappan Zee High School considers the inclusion of a swastika to be offensive and, possibly, a hate crime—regardless of the context.

“There is no context in a public high school where a swastika is appropriate,” South Orangetown Superintendent Bob Pritchard told the local CBS station.

[sparklite2]

"In God We Trust"

"You owe me an apology."

[Flycatcher]

Satire will be a crime soon.

[dfwgator]

"Remember kids, dressing up like Hitler in school, isn't cool."

[smokingfrog]

[lacrew]

The local high school recently put on the play To Kill A Mockingbird...none of the language was censored. I was surprised. And in the scene with the mad dog, it looked like the prop was a real rifle - again a surprise because in prior years prop guns have been brightly colored toys.

[Donglalinger]

[Talisker]

“There is no context in a public high school where a swastika is appropriate,” South Orangetown Superintendent Bob Pritchard told the local CBS station

Really Bob? How about history? You know, that subject where you can learn that the swastika was a symbol of good fortune for FIVE THOUSAND YEARS before a Nazi maniac got hold of it? You do actually TEACH things in your SCHOOL district, right Bob? Hello, Bob? Are you there, Bob?

[TontoKowalski]

It's not that I condone censorship of this type, but I am wondering why they would choose to put this play on in the first place. The humor is pretty adult... not dirty... but requires an amount of sophistication that generally comes with age. It is funny, but it's not slapstick.

That said, if they chose the play, they should put it on properly.

[sparklite2]

I was pleasantly shocked by NBC Saturday evening when they ran a hour of a Saturday Night Live episode from when Norm MacDonald was prominent on the show. They actually included a bit from the SNL “news” segment that got Norm fired from the show when a West Coast VP saw it being broadcast.

It’s where Norm, the “news anchor,” looks right in the camera and said, “You know [President] Clinton’s a murderer, right?”

It was awesome.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

We stayed in this building back in 1956. It was a hotel in Farmington NM. It is still there.

[sparklite2]

Internet connections must have been really slow in 1956. ;)

[kiryandil]

Wonder if anyone thought to axe Bob Pritchard what he thought of the Trump Free Speech curbstomping this last week?

Was it "OK" because the Fascists weren't wearing swastikas?...

[kiryandil]

Internet connections must have been really slow in 1956. ;)

sparklite - you're not trashing an FR "56er", are you? :)

[TigersEye]

As a Buddhist I am deeply offended at their bigotry and racism!

[tophat9000]

A Nazi without a swastika......is still a Nazi.....
A swastika without a Nazi......is just a swastika

[Sivad]

“Superintendent Pritchard is on his way from the
cafeteria to the library. Somebody hide the `Huckleberry
Finn’ books!”

[Don W]

High schoolers aren't children: presumably they can participate in a play that concerns Nazism without somehow coming away from it thinking Nazism is good. Similarly, can't the play show a swastika without anyone mistakenly believing the school is endorsing the symbol

A "journalist" that accepts freedom of thought? Young adults might not need to be told what to think? Tell me I'm not dreaming!.

Then again, there's the whole blind squirrel thing...

[ExGeeEye]

“There is no context in a public high school where a swastika is appropriate,” said somebody in charge of a place where history will no longer be taught, I guess.

[ExGeeEye]

Oh, was that it! I thought it was the F-bomb he dropped during the “fake news”.

[MacMattico]

Bwahahaha! I know that Superintendent from (his) two jobs prior... If you ever meet a guy named Bob Pritchard and having never known him before he tells you he's a member of Mensa for no reason within two minutes of meeting him you've found the right guy! He's self-absorbed, thinks he's the most important person in the world, and I believe may be under investigation at his old job. Now if he's so intelligent how would he not know their would be Swastikas in The Producers? There's a bunch of Nazis and Hitler but he only finds the insignia offensive? Then again he has no sense of satire and no sense of humor. I don't know how they caught him in the video looking like he did, He looks overweight and run down and not dressed well. He also usually has his round little glasses on to look intellectual. He looks like a drunken version of himself, but what does he care he's probably still pocketing at least $150,000 or more a year from the taxpayers.