Posted on 04/23/2005 8:49:27 AM PDT by ViLaLuz
School officials thumb their noses at California parents who object to a highly controversial musical being performed by students.
You might expect to find musicals containing depictions of rape, incest and bestiality somewhere off-Broadway—not in a high school production. But at La Canada High School in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., this year's spring musical is the highly controversial "Bat Boy."
The main character is a pointy-eared half-human boy with fangs who's discovered living in a cave in Hope Falls, W.V. While exploring the world, Bat Boy and the rest of the cast use drugs, alcohol and sex as tools for acceptance.
"It's great that this stuff is gonna be put on stage," said Daniel Barber, who plays Bat Boy. "We can all identify with the music."
At a recent school board meeting, cast members and mostly supportive parents tried to convince everyone that "Bat Boy: The Musical" is a good show. But when parent Otis Page read the script, he pulled his daughter from the audition and began the legal process of filing a formal complaint against the school.
"At the end of the play they say, 'Let the beast come out,' (but the) problem is, high school kids are letting the beast come out," Page said. "We've seen that at Columbine (High School, site of a 1999 school shooting), we've seen that all across the country.
"The law does say you can't hand out harmful material to . . . minors; they did that (with this play.) They also did this without notification against school policy and procedure."
So far, the La Canada school board has only decided to modify the play—and run a disclaimer on advertisements. But for 52-year-old Hal Thomas, who had four kids graduate from the school, "Bat Boy" won't be a hot ticket.
"It's s-i-c-k," Thomas said. "I wouldn't go if you gave me 10 free tickets."
The school's drama teacher is retiring at the end of this school year.
Since this is so obviously modelled after a tabloid character, do they have permission to use the name and image? Isn't Bat Boy copyrighted?
These poor kids are subjected to all sorts of mind-rotting ideas from pre-school to elementary school, to junior high, to senior high, to college and also from the entertainment world, the media establishment and the workplace.
How is it that so many people are able to fight through all that crap and become productive citizens?
April 19, 2005
Sweet Jesus! I just got an insider update on the Bat Boy situation in La Cañada (see entry below). The Board has officially supported the drama department's decision to put on the play.
Even though, as my source tells me,
Bob Waliszewski showed up. He is on the staff of Focus on the Family. He flew in from Colorado Springs to ask the Board to cancel the musical. He said Dr. James Dobson was horrified when he heard about the musical.
Apparently the drama students at the meeting were quite eloquent in defense of the freak (Bat Boy, not Dobson). God bless the little perverts.
My thanks to drama teacher Gale Caswell, administrators and staff of the school (this time, even the principal is on the side of the angels), the Board, and of course the students. They're all standing up to quite a lot of pressure, and I admire the hell out of them.
UPDATE: Another source who was at the meeting writes:
There was about an hour of public speaking, most on behalf of Bat Boy. Focus on the Family flew in people from Colorado Springs.
At the end, each school board member said a little piece in support of putting on the play as planned. For the most part the speakers on both sides were well spoken and intelligent. The guy from Focus on the Family quoted Keythe Farley saying the play was PG-13 or R-rated but conveniently didn't quote the next paragraph where he explained that the play could be modified to be appropriate for high school.
Normally I'd say it was over but the Focus Folks have a lot of cash behind them and evidently Dobson is "outraged."
To be continued, I'm sure.
This is a school board in a conservative area standing up for their students' right not to be treated like babies. As Dan Rather would say, Courage.
From what I gather, the board views this as an issue of academic integrity, and they're right.
I'm not sure about that.
La Canada-Flintridge is a very affluent suburb north of LA, lots of executives and Jet Propulsion Lab researchers.
Blame La Canada.
This is inappropriate for high schoolers. The "drama" teacher should be fired fir offering this ias her final production at the school, rather than being allowed to retire. The school board should also be dumped for letting the "show go on". This sounds like it is vulgar, obscene and the work of Satan and all of the so-called adults involved in letting it go forth are doing the work of the devil.
In the end, it is the kids who suffer by being exposed to this garbage. If I lived in the area, I would mount a big protest to keep people from seeing this crap.
Next for high school drama productions--"Hair" and "Rent". After all, they are classics.
I saw this play off-Broadway. It's stupid, but it's harmless. I knew the Producer too. Same description.
I guess you don't remember high school too clearly.
The idea is original and hilarious. Any bluenose showing up to spoil the fun should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
Or maybe they should put on a serious play. Like Equus.
In college I studied Theater. We did the play Equus, nude scene and all. (We were sold out every performance!). I was the nurse. Kept clothes on at all times. The guy who played the boy is now a successful actor in Hollywood. You've probably seen him.
No, i'ts not. It is La Cañada. Pronounced Lah Con Yada. It's a Spanish word.
Hair? Hairspray, maybe, but Hair?
LOL! See my post #12!
Songs like You Can't Get A Man With A Gun, too scarry
I'm An Indian Too It's Native American now, ya see.
How have I lived to 43 without the PC fanatics help??
My gosh..ban TV, this play is more innocent than most of the programming I've seen on primetime MTV.
I took a (very serious, literary, and, later to "switch teams," as it were) girlfriend to Equus while we were both in high school. Good thing she also had the fashion sense to dress us both so we'd pass for college students (all black, natch).
I saw Equus on Broadway when I was in High School as well. I was hoping to see Richard Burton as the Dr., but we saw Anthony Perkins who was pretty good. Were you seated on the stage as the jury?
She was the most hateful, foul instructor I ever encountered, including the fire training instructors I encountered (and some of them could be pretty interesting).
I wasn't sure what I believed at the end of the class, but I knew that whatever that hateful old b!tch stood for, I was against it.
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