Controversial Plays Generate Response from Kansas Dad


by Chad Groening

(AgapePress) – A Kansas man says he is appalled that his son's school district has refused to ban two controversial plays dealing with deviant sexual behavior.

This past spring, Jim Adler's son was a freshman at Blue Valley North High School, in an upscale suburb of Kansas City. One day his son brought home a copy of a play called Equus, which he said was required reading for his drama class. Adler says the play dealt with bestiality, which he believes is totally inappropriate for children.

“Their response is that Equus … won a Tony Award [and] was critically acclaimed … and they view it as they want to challenge the students and stretch them and expose them to the world and not let them live in a sheltered environment,” Adler says. “I would totally disagree … it depends who gave the award and the reasons and for what audience. Obviously, the play would not be appropriate for junior high or middle school or grade school kids.”

Adler says the school district also put on “Denity Crisis,” a play written by Christopher Durang that deals with incest. In both cases, he says the district responded with comments about being more open-minded and not keeping children hidden from the world. Adler says the school district wants to impose its agenda on children.

“They don't want to let people on the opposite end of the spectrum impose their values and their views on them, but it seems they want to have an opportunity to expose theirs so they can get their agenda across and we don't have an opportunity for anything to balance it,” he says.

Adler, who is an attorney, says he completely disagrees with the school district's policy. He hopes he can convince the district to change its policy without having to take the matter to court.

Equus, a controversial play written by Peter Shaffer, had more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. In 1975, it won the Tony Award for Best Play as well as the Drama Critics Award.


(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)

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