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'Voices in Conflict' to go off-campus

by: CTPatriot

Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 03:35:33 AM EDT

(Bumped - promoted by Matt Browner Hamlin)

The Wilton Villager Reports that:

WILTON —The Theatre Arts II class whose performance about the war in Iraq was canceled at Wilton High School will be taking their play off school grounds before the end of the academic year.
"There is a legal way for me to take it off-campus," said theater teacher Bonnie Dickinson, who was advised by her personal legal counsel to sign a document which will disassociate the play, "Voices in Conflict," from the Wilton schools.
In the meantime, Dickinson and the 15 students in her class are still working on the piece in class.
Principal Timothy Canty says Dickinson and her class have always been free to take "Voices in Conflict" to an external venue on their own time. He added that any legal documents signed by Dickinson are for her own protection; teachers who meet students off-campus for non-school events should clarify that such activities are not sponsored by the schools.
Canty says he's always encouraged the students to keep working on "Voices in Conflict" in class, although they would not be able to perform it in school this academic year.
It was always my perspective that the teachers and the students would continue to work on the piece in class," he said, adding that the performance would follow at a future date.
"The question was not if, but when," said Canty.

CTPatriot :: 'Voices in Conflict' to go off-campus

On that same edition's editorial page, WHS principal Tim Canty writes that:

As you know, there is much controversy about this decision and many in the media have taken an angry tone. I am working to ensure that those strident voices remain outside our school.
Within Wilton High School, we will continue to promote an atmosphere of civility and respect, reminding all that we can disagree without being disagreeable.
In the days to come, let us strive to work together to solve this problem with understanding and compassion for all.

Just to add a dose of irony to those words, the same angry rant from Barabara Alessi that appeared in the Wilton Bulletin (which I posted here) was included directly underneath Canty's editorial in the Villager. One has to wonder just how well that civility thing went during the many meetings that she had with school officials and to what extent her anger led to the decisions that led to the play's cancellation.

Tags: Intellectual Freedom, Censorship, Voices in Conflict, Wilton High School, (All Tags)

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'Voices in Conflict' to go off-campus | 8 comments

Meh (0.00 / 0)

I'm honestly not sure what I think about this. On the one hand, these students will be able to have their voice heard. I'd hope that they don't face any disciplinary actions for taking part in this play off-campus--schools in CT have been known to discipline students for their actions outside of school. On the other hand, these students have been forced off of campus because of their principal's decision to censor them and a vocal minority demanding that decision be upheld and critics STFU.

I really admire these students for their commitment to expressing their opinion on the war through art and speech. Their teacher, Bonnie Dickinson, should be honored for her persistent defense of her students' speech rights.

Disclosure: I'm proud to work for the Service Employees International Union

by: Matt Browner Hamlin @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 11:54:11 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Probably the best response to Canty et al (0.00 / 0)

is for those in the community who support the students, teacher and the play is to come out and support the off-campus production. Make the play a success.

And then run some progressives for BOE.

And remind Canty and his posse that just because they voted for Bush twice, it doesn't mean everybody else is supposed to live that shame down.

by: notcho @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 12:26:21 PM UTC

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Edit for formatting (0.00 / 0)

You can BYOB, but we provide the stylesheets and linebreaks, so no need to BYOHTML :)

–7.25 / –7.28 | http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tw...

by: mattw @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 14:49:23 PM UTC

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lol - BYOBHELP (0.00 / 0)

(scrunches face into confused look) ... I guess I need a little help wit dis? My current method of creating a diary is to compose my post in AOHell e-mail (just because I know it well and can get things done quickly) after which I cut/paste my formatted text to Front Page 2000. Then I click on the HTML tab in FP2000 and cut/paste the HTML code from that into MLN's diary entry form.

I know there's a lot of extraneous crap mixed in there but have no clue how to easily get rid of it. In my other life before Lyme I was a dbase/foxpro programmer. I'm somewhere between idiot and beginner with HTML programming and Front Page.

by: CTPatriot @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 15:05:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm ready to buy tickets (0.00 / 0)

And perhaps provide a ticket scholarship to a needy veteran or an 18 year old who might be tempted to enlist

because Connecticut voters count: http://www.CTVotersCount.org

by: BlastFromGlast @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 14:49:38 PM UTC

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I would support a MLN (0.00 / 0)

use of the "donate here" button for 2-5 days to cover the cost of scholarships for the play. These monies could be paid in advance and could be used to create "reduced price tickets" for people in active military (show military ID) and students in 12th grade or below (show student ID).

The question is not what you are, we already determined that, we are now negotiating price.
electrealdemocrats.com Online since 3/07 -- TimetogoJoe.com Online s

by: Met00 @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 19:17:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Canty, Canty Canty... (0.00 / 0)

Within Wilton High School, we will continue to promote an atmosphere of civility and respect, reminding all that we can disagree without being disagreeable.

How can he say this when he isn't letting the students "disagree" in the first place? Jeezum!

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." - Warren Buffet

by: joesaho @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 16:11:42 PM UTC

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The Villager article (0.00 / 0)

So Canty maintains he has always "allowed" the students the right to perform the play off-campus. This despite the fact that the students and Ms. Dickinson unanimously report that he threatened disciplinary action at the March 13 meeting if they attempted to do that.

At this moment, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the issue of whether public high schools can discipline students for exercising free speech off-campus (Morse v. Frederick, the so-called "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case.)

Canty says he's always encouraged the students to keep working on "Voices in Conflict" in class, although they would not be able to perform it in school this academic year.

In fact, Canty told one of the WHS students that the soonest they could expect to be able to perform the play on-campus would be "five years from now".

It seems to me that Canty's generous offer to "let" the play be performed off-campus is besides the point. The point is, why can't they perform the play at the school?

This is not my blog.

by: maxzook @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 16:19:08 PM UTC

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'Voices in Conflict' to go off-campus | 8 comments

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