Posted on 03/18/2006 10:46:26 AM PST by Lunatic Fringe
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - A central Missouri high school drama teacher whose spring play was canceled after complaints about tawdry content in one of her previous productions will resign rather than face a possible firing.
"It became too much to not be able to speak my mind or defend my students without fear or retribution," said Fulton High School teacher Wendy DeVore.
DeVore's students were to perform Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a drama set during the 17th Century Salem witch trials.
But after a handful of Callaway Christian Church members complained about scenes in the fall musical "Grease" that showed teens smoking, drinking and kissing, Superintendent Mark Enderle told DeVore to find a more family-friendly substitute.
DeVore chose Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a classic romantic comedy with its own dicey subject matter, including suicide, rape and losing one's virginity.
DeVore, 31, a six-year veteran teacher, said administrators told her that her annual contract might not be renewed.
"Maybe I need to find a school that's a better match," she said.
Both Enderle and the high school principal declined to discuss DeVore's resignation, citing privacy concerns. The resignation must still be approved by the school board.
Publicity over the drama debate, including a front-page story in The New York Times, has cast an unflattering light on Fulton as an intolerant small town, several of DeVore's colleagues said.
"We have become a laughingstock," teacher Paula Fessler told The Fulton Sun.
"I don't have a problem with any of the plays chosen but her administrators did so she could have picked an acceptable (to the administrators not to FReepers or NYT) play or she could choose move on. apparently she choose the latter.
"
Again, please read the story. She DID pick an acceptable play. She saw her kids through the production. Now, she's resigning. AFTER she did a play everyone approved of.
That makes a difference, I think. Perhaps you feel differently. But she did as the administrator asked. She wasn't about to let the kids down.
You are referring to that hellish purveyor of smut, Mitch Miller.
Nice catch. I had forgotten "Footloose." The same story. I wonder how the Defenders of The Prisses feel about that movie. Well...I don't really wonder.
This woman is better off leaving that "school"......deep sixing Shakespeare? Looney tunes at work.
You're a smart guy. It's been a pleasure...now, I gotta get to work...
But, one last thing --
I don't believe that these people understand the full consequences of stuff like this. I could be wrong here, but let me throw this out --
this kind of stuff adds to the flight of the professional classes from small towns. the parents don't leave, but their children do. they head off for college and never return. basically a "brain drain."
it also gives businesses thinking of setting up shop in such areas pause. a simple google of the town or conty and something like this pops up could influence a decision by some CEO.
it also serves to polarize our nation even more. something, I believe, we can't afford.
anyway, that's my two cents.
have a great day.
Rush in saying "this play is about rape" or some other evil, and you may be quite wrong. First because the director may have changed the text, and second because rape and violence never really stood out in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Was it really so important a part of the story even as Shakespeare wrote it?
There are some real problems with The Crucible. It doesn't tell the truth about either the 1690s or the 1950s, and I wouldn't perform it for that reason. But a play is a play and may divulge from historical truth. I can't see banning it for its politics or because it looks at things in life that people would like to ignore.
Yeah. After I got out of the Air Force in 1969, I drifted back up to San Francisco for a while, but it wasn't the same place. Some of the old guard was still there, holding court at Vesuvio, but the action had moved on to the Haight, and it wasn't really my scene. I never really got into the whole drug thing.
Still, I was only 22, and I hung around there for a couple of months, had my fill of pretty little unwashed flower children of the female persuasion, then abandoned the life and became a productive citizen.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that everyone should be young once. It's so soon past.
"You are referring to that hellish purveyor of smut, Mitch Miller."
That's it. His recording of Mozart's Oboe Concerto is salacious.
IMHO, it's the Christian Conservatives in this story who are acting like a bunch of Nazis. "Grease"?! Puleeze! Oooh - smoking, drinking and kissing! How terrible. And those darn Salem Witch trials. Just misunderstood Christians trying to rid their town of a few bad seeds I guess. No need to review that part of our history, huh?
Nice to type atcha!
Don't sing "It's a Smallworld"
Revenge is sweet...
Two wrongs don't make a right.
"Two wrongs don't make a right."
But three lefts do.
[always looking for an opportunity to use that line]
"My advice to you: don't move there.
"
Ah, never fear. I've lived in small towns, and I've lived in big cities. For my waning years, I'll take the big city, thanks.
Lots more to do, and lots of opportunities to be of assistance in my retirement. Small towns have their interesting moments, though. This was one of those. I'm sure it livened things up there in Missouri. With any luck, it even woke up some folks.
It appears that you have already made your own conclusions about me. Think what you will.
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