Brokeback School? UPDATED
May 14, 2007 by Laura | Trackback URI
h/t Weasel Zippers
Okay, forget about the homosexuality. Forget about the fact that it’s an R rated movie being shown to kids who are 12 or 13 years old. Are kids in Chicago schools so well educated that they can afford to spend class time on watching a movie with no educational value whatsoever?
But, hey… at least Brokeback Mountain isn’t promoting cigarette smoking. Gotta protect the kids, right?
Yet ANOTHER reason why we choose to homeschool.
Update: This Fox news story has more detail. Apparently the substitute teacher willfully showed the movie even though she clearly understood that it was inappropriate:
Now here’s the flip side of the story:
Richardson said his granddaughter was traumatized by the movie and had to undergo psychological treatment and counseling.
In 2005, Richardson complained to school administrators about reading material that he said included curse words.
“This was the last straw,” he said. “I feel the lawsuit was necessary because of the warning I had already given them on the literature they were giving out to children to read. I told them it was against our faith.”
If a twelve year old child is THAT sensitive - that something like this warrants psychological intervention - she should already have been in some kind of counseling. Additionally, was she prevented from getting up and leaving the room? If so, could she not have put her head down on the desk or read a book? Was it a Clockwork Orange situation where she was compelled by some means to keep her eyes fixed on the screen? I’m NOT justifying showing the movie - it was absolutely wrong. Measures should be taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. But I am suggesting that if she were THAT traumatized, she had the means to avoid seeing it while she was stuck in the classroom.
And while I fully agree that Richardson was correct to complain about reading material that includes curse words, it is enough to complain about it on the grounds that it is inappropriate for children. I don’t want school systems to comply with any faith’s mores; it is enough to keep things age appropriate, hold to a standard of common decency, and give parents a way to opt out of anything that is offensive to their faith.
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