Mt Spokane's spring play is not a reflection of dignity, class and respect the Wildcat Way.
- Location: Mead, WA
To the Mt. Spokane High School Principal and Theater Director:
I am writing as a community member deeply upset to learn what you've planned to present as your Spring drama production. I hope that I can share these opinions and facts with a tone of genuine respect, care, and a sincere desire to contribute positively.
It's safe to say we all have the same goals for this play: something the school can be proud of, something that uplifts and betters each performer and audience member, and something that rises to the Mead School District's "Why Statement:"
In everything Mead does, we have a passion to position our students for success now and in the future. We do this through a commitment to providing each student with an outstanding education, building and maintaining safe schools and partnering with our community.
The musical Zombie Prom goes against everything this school and school district are striving for.
A brief look at the facts:
This play mocks, demeans, and villainizes school instructors and the principal. Students already don't understand how much their teachers do for them, care for them, and the level of dedication and professionalism they maintain. We don't need a play portraying such a false and potentially hurtful reality.
This play features lewd, vulgar themes and vocabulary. Do we really need to expose and encourage these in teenagers?! They get enough in the world they're in. It does no one any good for them to be memorizing lines like the ones featured in the song "Expose," where the school principal and the slimy reporter detail their perverted sexual encounters in art class. This is after the Reporter sings about her love of digging up the dirt on prostitutes, celebrities sneaking into Motel 6, playboy, and nymphomaniacs.
And a final example - though not the last, as there are many... a character is referred to as "the one wearing too much makeup and not enough underwear."
THIS is what Mead School District wants to be presented to the student body and community?! This is the very best production we can come up with, and is deemed totally worth the countless hours and extensive resources dedicated to it?! There is better! And we can do better!
If the above points are disregarded or argued with, my last point should be held in higher regard because it's more fact than opinion based.
Zombie Prom glorifies an intensely sensitive, painful topic that should be handled with the very most care: TEENAGE SUICIDE. Thousands of teens kill themselves each year in America. Globally, a teenager dies every 30 seconds from suicide. It was the 3rd leading cause of death for their age group.... now it's the 2nd. The reasoning behind this alarming rise might be found in "Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide," a list of guidelines developed by suicide prevention experts and journalists. They state that sensational headlines or describing a suicide in detail lead to suicide contagion, or "copycat" suicides. They also state that suicides shouldn't be blamed on a single person or event (such as is done in the play) - that leaves the public with a simplistic, misleading understanding of suicide.
Young adults are so impressionable. Their brains are not fully formed and they don't entirely grasp the connection between their actions and the natural consequences. Specifically, the permanence of death. This is why the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why" generated so much controversy. There is no "getting revenge" after suicide. There is no Prom after suicide. All there is after suicide is a life of grief and pain for those left behind.
It takes only a few minutes of review to see that this play is a sick tasteless mockery of a sensitive subject. Lines like these have no place at Mt. Spokane High School : "He wasn't all that special even when he was alive." "Gotta cheer up, he only died. /Yeah, it's not like he was screwing around." "Equal rights for the undead could be a national crusade!"
The whole play turns the boy who killed himself into an absolute HERO. A hero. Firemen are heroes. Hard working honest law enforcement are heroes. Good teachers are heroes. Kids can never, ever be led to believe that suicide will turn them into a hero.
But the great news here is this: the play hasn't started yet! Try outs haven't started! IT'S NOT TOO LATE! Let's not be like the California school who tried to put on this production but received so much negative feedback that they tried to just modify the script midway thru. The script of a musical isn't as easy to change as others might be. And, especially in this case, not worth the effort. There are so many better choices available. Shows that wouldn't leave vulnerable audience and cast members left envisioning the glory of graphically killing themselves and returning as a zombie to sing: "Did you miss your buried boyfriend?/ Cry yourself to sleep at night?/ Come and kiss your monster mister./ Plug me in and watch me light! /Step right up and see me ladies;/ Now appearing straight from Hades!"
I am a concerned community member, proud MSHS graduate, mother of children slated to be Wildcats in a few years, and a local Youth Group Leader. We've brought our Youth Group and their families to school plays many times as a big group. It's always been a great experience for everyone; we're happy to support the theater department and their peers. Zombie Prom is definitely not a production we will be able to support in good conscience.
I appreciate your time in reading this letter considerately and carefully. It was written with those intentions.
One final note - which I believe might be the strongest case point in electing to change this year's school musical - instead of focusing on "what's so bad about it," let's focus on "what's so good about it." That list is pretty short. And nothing that can't be duplicated with one of the many, many, MANY other wonderful, praiseworthy, entertaining, challenging, brilliant musical scripts available for students to perform!
Let's find a GREAT one and work together to make the Spring 2018 Mt. Spokane theater production the very best yet!
Sincerely,
Chelsea McKell
Sign PetitionSign PetitionI am writing as a community member deeply upset to learn what you've planned to present as your Spring drama production. I hope that I can share these opinions and facts with a tone of genuine respect, care, and a sincere desire to contribute positively.
It's safe to say we all have the same goals for this play: something the school can be proud of, something that uplifts and betters each performer and audience member, and something that rises to the Mead School District's "Why Statement:"
In everything Mead does, we have a passion to position our students for success now and in the future. We do this through a commitment to providing each student with an outstanding education, building and maintaining safe schools and partnering with our community.
The musical Zombie Prom goes against everything this school and school district are striving for.
A brief look at the facts:
This play mocks, demeans, and villainizes school instructors and the principal. Students already don't understand how much their teachers do for them, care for them, and the level of dedication and professionalism they maintain. We don't need a play portraying such a false and potentially hurtful reality.
This play features lewd, vulgar themes and vocabulary. Do we really need to expose and encourage these in teenagers?! They get enough in the world they're in. It does no one any good for them to be memorizing lines like the ones featured in the song "Expose," where the school principal and the slimy reporter detail their perverted sexual encounters in art class. This is after the Reporter sings about her love of digging up the dirt on prostitutes, celebrities sneaking into Motel 6, playboy, and nymphomaniacs.
And a final example - though not the last, as there are many... a character is referred to as "the one wearing too much makeup and not enough underwear."
THIS is what Mead School District wants to be presented to the student body and community?! This is the very best production we can come up with, and is deemed totally worth the countless hours and extensive resources dedicated to it?! There is better! And we can do better!
If the above points are disregarded or argued with, my last point should be held in higher regard because it's more fact than opinion based.
Zombie Prom glorifies an intensely sensitive, painful topic that should be handled with the very most care: TEENAGE SUICIDE. Thousands of teens kill themselves each year in America. Globally, a teenager dies every 30 seconds from suicide. It was the 3rd leading cause of death for their age group.... now it's the 2nd. The reasoning behind this alarming rise might be found in "Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide," a list of guidelines developed by suicide prevention experts and journalists. They state that sensational headlines or describing a suicide in detail lead to suicide contagion, or "copycat" suicides. They also state that suicides shouldn't be blamed on a single person or event (such as is done in the play) - that leaves the public with a simplistic, misleading understanding of suicide.
Young adults are so impressionable. Their brains are not fully formed and they don't entirely grasp the connection between their actions and the natural consequences. Specifically, the permanence of death. This is why the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why" generated so much controversy. There is no "getting revenge" after suicide. There is no Prom after suicide. All there is after suicide is a life of grief and pain for those left behind.
It takes only a few minutes of review to see that this play is a sick tasteless mockery of a sensitive subject. Lines like these have no place at Mt. Spokane High School : "He wasn't all that special even when he was alive." "Gotta cheer up, he only died. /Yeah, it's not like he was screwing around." "Equal rights for the undead could be a national crusade!"
The whole play turns the boy who killed himself into an absolute HERO. A hero. Firemen are heroes. Hard working honest law enforcement are heroes. Good teachers are heroes. Kids can never, ever be led to believe that suicide will turn them into a hero.
But the great news here is this: the play hasn't started yet! Try outs haven't started! IT'S NOT TOO LATE! Let's not be like the California school who tried to put on this production but received so much negative feedback that they tried to just modify the script midway thru. The script of a musical isn't as easy to change as others might be. And, especially in this case, not worth the effort. There are so many better choices available. Shows that wouldn't leave vulnerable audience and cast members left envisioning the glory of graphically killing themselves and returning as a zombie to sing: "Did you miss your buried boyfriend?/ Cry yourself to sleep at night?/ Come and kiss your monster mister./ Plug me in and watch me light! /Step right up and see me ladies;/ Now appearing straight from Hades!"
I am a concerned community member, proud MSHS graduate, mother of children slated to be Wildcats in a few years, and a local Youth Group Leader. We've brought our Youth Group and their families to school plays many times as a big group. It's always been a great experience for everyone; we're happy to support the theater department and their peers. Zombie Prom is definitely not a production we will be able to support in good conscience.
I appreciate your time in reading this letter considerately and carefully. It was written with those intentions.
One final note - which I believe might be the strongest case point in electing to change this year's school musical - instead of focusing on "what's so bad about it," let's focus on "what's so good about it." That list is pretty short. And nothing that can't be duplicated with one of the many, many, MANY other wonderful, praiseworthy, entertaining, challenging, brilliant musical scripts available for students to perform!
Let's find a GREAT one and work together to make the Spring 2018 Mt. Spokane theater production the very best yet!
Sincerely,
Chelsea McKell
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