NEWPORT BEACH, California
Fal Asrani, Principal of Corona Del Mar High School, told drama teacher Ron Martin that they were not allowed to perform “Rent” for their spring production because Asrani disapproved of the gay characters in the musical.
Martin chose “Rent” in hopes of raising tolerance after overhearing homosexual slurs.
“We’ve all been angry,” Drama Club President Tim Dyess said. “The reason why it got cancelled was completely ridiculous.”
Asrani argues that she only asked to review the script.
BOULDER, Colorado
Our new president has a huge effect on one particular high school. The Student Worker Group at Boulder High School put in a petition to have their school re-named “Barack Obama High School.”
However, Principal Bud Jenkins thinks otherwise.
“Of all the things in the world that need to be changed, Boulder High’s name is way down on the list,” Jenkins said.
The school district’s spokesman Briggs Gamblin and superintendent Chris King are “ready to consider the students’ proposal,” but note that there are still steps the students have to take including being able to convince a majority of board members that “extraordinary circumstances” are present for changing the school’s name.
For an elementary school in New York, they recently changed their name from Ludlum Elementary to Barack Obama Elementary.
Junior Ben Raderstorf, aware of the elementary school said, “But we would be the first high school, and at Boulder High, that has always been our motto. We are the first to do a lot of things.”
LINCOLNSHIRE, Illinois
Stevenson High School published a spread in the school newspaper about “hooking up.”
The definition of “hooking up” used in the stories included everything from making out to casual sex between people with no relationship ties. Side-bars included a time line of one student’s journey to get a girl into bed at a party and blurbs from teachers about their dating experiences in the past. There was also a story on chemical reactions in male and female brains during sexual intercourse hookups.
The controversial issue caused the largest attendance at a District 125 School Board meeting in recent memory. It was agreed that the Stevenson High School newspaper must now submit to new restrictions concerned with censorship.
Stevenson High School spokesman, Jim Conrey said, “We think another pair of eyes is needed to look for red flags.”
Others, including parents, support the newspaper’s spread.
“I’m fully in support of any issue that gets the kids talking,” district parent Scott Kofkin said.
Journalism Education Association director Randy Swikle advises a second thought on considering a policy of prior review because he believes it shows no confidence.
Sources for stories: msnbc.com, detnews.com, cbsnews.com
Amanda Mendoza
Staff Writer
