Consider the source and location. All that rain in Seattle has obviously rotted their brains, causing random mis-firing of neurons.
Posted on 03/16/2005 8:57:47 AM PST by Patriot62
SCHOOL'S STAGE WAS SET FOR A STARK LESSON
Three invited pro-military speakers were shocked last Friday when they arrived for a West Seattle High student assembly to confront a theater stage strewn with figures costumed as Iraqi men, women and children splashed with blood.
It was a warm-up for the "Iraq Awareness Assembly" so no students except the actual actors saw the skit before the military guests complained to principal Susan Derse and she put a stop to it. And here comes the crucial part: no teachers or advisers were on hand or evidently even aware of the content although that part is one of several things still under investigation.
What happened at West Seattle High was troubling and messy, to be sure. But it also was educational, if you don't mind learning the hard way. Lessons don't all come neatly packaged. Sometimes they come laced with pain, anger, regret and conflicting passions.
In the aftermath of the assembly, students, administrators and staff are learning, among other things, just how deep run the emotional divisions behind the bumper stickers they may encounter in the school parking lot.
"War is terrorism!," "No Iraq War!" and "Not in My Name!" some slogans say. "Land of the Free Because of the Brave!," "My Daughter Is Serving in Iraq" and "Proud American, Embarrassed Washingtonian (with photos of Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Jim McDermott)" others declare.
For Nadine Gulit of Operation Support Our Troops, the spectacle was sickening.
She had been asked by student organizers to provide three speakers and she delivered.
"I was told there would be three on each side. No debates. No rebuttal," she said in the e-mail she fired off to members of the Seattle School Board. "At no time was I referred to a teacher nor did a teacher contact me. As I walked into the theater there was a young girl wearing a mask and crawling on the floor. And, over the loud speaker (someone) was denouncing our military, saying 'Americans are killing my family!' "
Not a good thing for "impressionable students who may have family serving Iraq," Gulit told student organizers. "Two of our speakers had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan."
With her speakers in tow, Gulit saw the bloodied figures on the floor. Stage right were students in orange Abu Ghraib-style prison jumpsuits, hoods over heads, pounding on plates with spoons. Next, a student dressed as a grieving Iraqi woman knelt near a bloody body while, over a microphone, a narrator wailed the story of civilians shot, kicked and beaten by American soldiers.
"Did anyone with authority read this script?" wondered Diane Anderson, another adult on the pro-military side who attended the assembly.
Good question and one I tried to ask. Attempts to reach principal Derse were unsuccessful. But Seattle Schools communications manager Patti Spencer filled in what blanks she could.
"It isn't clear at this moment to what extent any adults on staff knew what the pre-assembly theatrical element was going to be," she told me. "The initial understanding, the point of the assembly, was for it to be completely thorough and balanced -- three speakers to support the troops, three who were anti-war. And the drama or enactment was supposed to be the same."
Obviously that part went awry. Apparently the plan was for students to file into the auditorium as the play was going on. But, when she got wind of the content of the skit, Derse issued an announcement that all students be detained in their rooms until after the stage could be cleared. "The only folks who saw it were the students putting it on and, unfortunately, the guest speakers," Spencer said.
There's disagreement, too, about the tone of the rest of the assembly. Gulit credits Derse for putting a swift stop to the skit but claims the panel discussion was loaded on the anti-war side.
But a letter to the school from at least one of the military participants said the panel was fair and balanced. It was a lively discussion peppered with heatedly conflicting views. But mutual respect reigned.
And that is as it should be. High school students have every right to question the war in Iraq and how its civilians are being treated. After all, it's a war that some of them may very well soon be fighting.
Still, no one wants a rancid replay of the days when young Vietnam War vets returned to pigs' blood and cries of "Baby killer!"
There is nothing quite so powerful as the first stirrings of political protest. But, since the assembly, students are learning the importance of condemning policy, not the young people near their own age who are sent into danger to serve.
Despite all the fallout, it's a lesson bloody well worth learning.
Susan Paynter's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call her at 206-448-8392 or send e-mail to susanpaynter@seattlepi.com.
I'll say he is. Nothing p#sses me off more than a icon to the backward criminality of the communists. They ripped them down in Russia while idiots in America put them up.
This is a PUBLIC school, funded with TAXPAYER dollars. Ideology and anti-US sentiments have no place there.
If they want to put their anti-war display somewhere else, that's freedom of speech, but on school property it should not be allowed.
Where are the parents?
"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." -V.I. Lenin
I'll bet most, if not all, of the students involved couldn't find Iraq on a map.
It has been too sunshiny here of late. I think that this is called California syndrome.
What do you expect, being that i live around Seattle, what do you really expect? This is the kind of crap, one has to put up with anyway, as a matter of fact, my grades paid for it, my senior year of high school, 2000-01.
All I can say is God help any child of mine that would have pulled such a stunt. I'd have him or her out behind the wood shed for a little come to Jesus meeting. There is no excuse for such foul attitudes, when our troops are bleeding for the USA. May God have mercy on their souls. Amen.
Secondly, there is absoultely no way these ' students' thought of this all by themselves, first off, they aren't that smart.
There was a time that the American public could stomach the fight, i'm afriad those days are long gone.
Three invited pro-military speakers were shocked
i just wish one of the soldiers had enough sense to tell the facilty to let the students continue. Then get up there and say that it's becasue of soldiers like him that are willing to give their lives in many wars so that the children can express themselves freely in a free country. thats why i can honestly say i'm kind of questioning everyones outrage here. i agree, the soldiers shouldn't be the target of these students frustartion, take them on a field trip to washington, let them do their skit. politicinas start wars. Soldiers merely follow orders and do their duty.
These kids learned this from home, from their leftist mothers and fathers. My wife went to West Seattle High School. She cannot believe this happened there. Of course, she is from the 1960s, not this screwed up time.
They'd all get on buses and head to Vancouver BC...
That is truly sick. Even Boston doesn't praise Lenin!!
I would have spit on the 'actors'. good thing no one invited me.
so, lemme get this straight...we can't display the Ten Commandments on public property, but we can have statues of LENIN on public property?
Consider the source and location. All that rain in Seattle has obviously rotted their brains, causing random mis-firing of neurons.
At least the general student body did not see it. I can't say it often or loud enough . . . the east side of Washington MUST create their own state. As a resident of Washington State, I do not want to be associated with the west side, period.
In Seattle? You're kidding, right? Actually, the statue is in an area of Seattle known as Fremont. Fremont is kind of like Seattle, but further to the left. Not kidding. Here's a link to info about the statue:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/WASEAlenin.html
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