Just damn.
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Posted on 03/17/2005 8:16:23 PM PST by mhking
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.
Just damn.
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Ms. Paynter, go to Hell.
Just Damn is right.
Yikes...
A vivid effect of our lying leftest media. People actualy do believe their lies and distortions of the truth.
The fact that we kill that many or more in major cities from gunfire or that we kill 50,000 a year on our highways is lost on them.
My sympathies.
Too late for that.
It is clear that the teachers and advisers need adult supervision before we can expect the students to even begin to act civilly.
A phrase repeated right before the inferred "so long as they agree with my ideology". If this were a pro-military play, you know this pissant "reporter" would be up in arms about the lack of control the school district exhibited. Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat.
"Seattle Schools communications manager Patti Spencer"
I wonder where she fits in with readin, writin and rithmetic?? How much do the taxpayers fork over for her salary and bennies????
I don't believe no adult faculty knew of this for a moment. It's coordinated leftist "plausible denial" spin.
"I don't believe no adult faculty knew of this for a moment"
I called the school today and was given the names of the student advisors. One is the Librarian and the other is the Automotive Shop Teacher. What was peculiar, was that on their personal profile pages neither had a picture posted, as opposed to other teachers' profiles I checked. All that was shown in lieu of a photo was a stylized silhouette.
I forget who called it "The People's Soviet of Washington" (William F. Buckley?) but this piece makes him look to have overstated things only slightly.
High School students being brainwashed with this "our soldiers are torturing" crap by the liberal media need to be redirected to look in thier own back yards before attempting to cast stones at brave men and women in combat:
http://www.stophazing.org/news/index.htm
Keep in mind that when it occurs in the safety of middle-class schools the liberal media use the euphemism "hazing", but if it occurs in a combat zone it is referred to as "torture" or "abuse".
I live in a neighboring state. I have friends and relatives in the Seattle area. Mostly sane, a couple of the loonies. I have often wondered if it is better to keep these idiots confined in one place, or disperse them out into more sensible populations. Still don't know which.
RoK
They are among us all.
No surprise that this happened in Seattle.
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Your tax dollars at work. |
When Congress is through with their dog & pony show over steroid use in MLB, then perhaps they'll grow a set of cajones and go after the NEA.
Of course, I expect this to happen roughly around the same time as my wedding to Ann Coulter.
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