"Maybe in another town it's a classic"

[wyldwolf]

Welcome to the "Leave It To Beaverland" of the movie "Footloose."

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.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060318/D8GE1GLO8.html

I'm reminded of the scene from Footloose where Kevin Bacon is having dinner with some of the town folk and a discusion of Slaughterhouse V is taking place:

Ren: "Oh yeah, it's a classic."
Woman: "Maybe in another town it's a classic."
Ren: "Anywhere."
Man: "Tom Sawyer is a classic."

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.

[TomClash]

1. The "Christians"

don't want any play performed except "Christian" plays.

[Dunvegan]

2. Well, The Crucible has plenty of Christian characters.

...some burning witches.

[TomClash]

5. Well, then it's dated

because today they'd burn lesbians.

[Dunvegan]

8. True, dat.

Come to think of it...weren't most of the Salem witches burned singularly independent women?

[TomClash]

9. Not sure

but it wouldn't surprise me.

[CBHagman]

11. No, they hang them.

A technicality, to be sure, but Salem townspeople DID NOT burn so-called witches and wizards. They hanged them, pressed them to death, or imprisoned them.

[0007]

4. What a bunch of twisted fucks!

And we wonder why the world thinks we're nuts.

[zbird]

3. When I was in 5th grade (many, many years ago!)...

my class did a dramatization of "The Crucible". We also did one of "Animal Farm". I had a GREAT teacher!

[dsc]

6. Who's falut is that Ms. Fessler?

Maybe you shouldn't have driven the teacher away. Maybe you shouldn't have banned Grease or a Midsummer's Night Dream. You deserve to be a laughingstock.

[Solon]

7. This school and town is just wacked...

OK, Grease is objectionable? You have to be shitting me, and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is also objectionable. Shit on a Shingle, I remember, in my High School days, we did a scene for our English Lit class where me and some buddies "Modernized" Shakespearean play scene, ok I forgot which play, but all I know is that we kept the dialog and changed the setting a little bit. No swords and stuff, just guns, and a bunch of other props too, we asked the teacher if it was OK to bring toy guns and shit, she said it was fine, and we had a blast. Nowadays, I have no doubt that if we pulled that shit today, we would have been expelled, and if the teacher OK'd it she would have been fired.

[CBHagman]

10. Not an accurate description of a Midsummer Night's Dream

Oh, for heaven's sake. A Midsummer Night's Dream is about what happens when a young woman elopes with her sweetheart after her father threatens to have her killed or married off to a man she doesn't love. They are pursued by her spurned suitor and her best friend, and all of them cross paths with the mischief-making fairies. The latter also cross paths with a group of guys trying to rehearse a play. Confusion results, and all is resolved happily, with mulitple marriages by the end of the play.