Beaumont schools ban film

Oct. 11, 2004, 11:29PM

Beaumont schools ban film
Superintendent cites 'bias' of 'Fahrenheit 9/11'
Associated Press

BEAUMONT - The Beaumont school superintendent assured parents Monday that Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 will not be shown again in district classrooms.

Carrol Thomas said the politically charged film, shown Friday at an alternative school, had no place in the Beaumont school system.

"We don't need to be showing biased viewpoints in BISD," Thomas said in Tuesday editions of the Beaumont Enterprise.

Parent Michael Kurth criticized the decision to show the movie, based on its R rating and political partisanship. His son Matthew, 17, said that he put his head on his desk and tried to sleep through it.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2842937

Yes, thinking is hard work. Better to sleep than watch and discuss. Great parenting there. :thumbsup:

That's some great open-mindedness. Hell.. my daughter's jr high class was not allowed to watch "Supersize Me", in their health class, because of a massive protest in Open House, by parents who didn't want their kids seeing the PG13 movie. Too controversial. sheesh.

"He put his head on the desk and tried to sleep through it."

America, you could be in for a very rude awakening.

edit: Keep sleeping Matthew. You'll wake up on the bus to boot camp.

What a little punk. I hope some very angry minority drill sgt kicks him right in the ass.

If there's ANY justice in the world that would happen. I would personally relish the chance to DENY his appeal to the draft board. Id send the little shit off to battle with a huge smile on my face.

projecting a repug? Come on this kid is probably 16-18 and has had any interest in the system beat out of him by our efficient school system by now. It's not necessarily his fault, I was the same way. I can't believe that as much as we go on and on here about how much better we are than freepers, shit like this still gets encouraged. He's just a kid, cut him some slack.

an optional activity. I loved that movie, but it's very baised.

What would they balance it with?

Or just play audio cuts of Limbaugh and Hannity.

It's balanced by mainstream TV, which a majority of people see every day.

Why is it that even lefties have this double standard where RW propaganda doesn't have to be balanced, but LW propaganda has to be balanced?

Kindof sounds like Murdoch who claims that conservative media are objective. According to many conservatives, only opinions with which they agree are "balanced", and everything they disagree with is "biased".

All to ofted one can hear people say "it doesn't tell both sides of the story". So what do they mean? that mainstream media do tell both sides of the story, even though that is no longer a requirement since Reagan did away with the Fairness doctrine?

We hear one side of the story all the time; F911 -IS- (part of) the other side of the story.

why should the other side of the story be optional?

is truth biased?

The Passion of the Christ was probably a mandatory assembly. No bias, violence or mixed messages there!

I think a DISCUSSION of propagands...ALL propaganda IS a valid discussion for high school, but I don't want that door opened..

High school aged kids know about "all" the hot movies, CDs, TV shows.. They will search it out on their own:)

Learning to read and write or other basics might be okay, but the propaganda they try to teach in history and stuff is such a pile.

so America's kids will grow up idolizing Reagan, without ever learning the real reason that the "Wall" came down..

History if often rewrote many times and pictures often become clearer as things get examined closer. Christopher Columbus is just such an example. Many navigators had already assumed the the world being round because of the way their charts had to be laid out, but that wasn't even the real issue. And even so today they still try drill that propaganda for the Euros in.

The Truth About Columbus

1. Columbus did not set sail to prove the world was round. He set sail to find gold, spices, and silks, and other riches in Asia.
2. Columbus made four voyages to the Americas. The second was just months after his return from the first and best-known adventure.
3. Columbus used simple instruments to help him know where he was going. He used a compass to show him which direction he was going. To see how fast he was going he used a long rope with knots tied at equal spaces and a log tied to the end. Sailors would throw the log overboard and counted how many knots went over the railing in a minute.
4. Columbus never set foot on North America. On October 12, 1492 he landed on an island he named San Salvador, which is located between Florida and Cuba. No one is sure which island it is today.
(snip)
http://www.teacherhelpers.homestead.com/ColumbusDay.html

Here is another fun read
http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/t96476.html

NOTHING with a POV gets past these doors UNLESS officially apporved.

peace

If a school was showing my kids some Falwell tripe "Clinton Chronicles" or some other piece of right-wing shit. I agree that Fahrenheit 9/11 shouldn't be shown in schools, any more than I think that the Bible or that Swift Boat Veterans book should be read in schools.

It's definitely biased! And really hard to read!

"Now for all of you kids who don't want to think, just lay your heads down and try to sleep. Wouldn't want any of the thinking stuff going on in here, would we?"

And yay! We can do away with math, since there's a definite bias toward certain ways of thinking there!

And US History! Too much POV there as well!

Hell, I thought this might be a problem, but it's gonna be great!

That'll work!

Also, there are parents who would be very angry about this film being shown at K-12 level. School officials shouldn't put themselves in the middle of a controversy like that, unless a case can be made that it is directly beneficial to the kids. An example would be that it is probably acceptable to most parents to show their kids the Mel Gibson version of "Hamlet" (it's PG-13), if it was in an English lit class that was studying Shakespeare at the time.

with that exact film. It was *really* well-made, too; we sat there with copies of the original script whilst watching it, and it was dead-on accurate through most if not all of the film.

I recall they did use the original script, I believe. It was a fascinating experience. I wish Hollywood did that more often.

for a school to show an R rated movie to students without explicit permission from the parents is stepping way over the line. Just because it is F9/11 doesn't give them a pass. If they wanted to show after school and offer as extracurricular, with signed permission slips, maybe. I would be up in the school's face so fast, no matter what the subject was, if they usurped my authority like that.

Unless the kids are drugged into submission, they'll be having their own private screenings.

Just ask the (remaining) Sex Pistols.

from the incinerators. Their parents would tell them to just look away and pretend it doesn't exist. Matthew was being a good little German.

n/t

Without, at least, having another option, I know here (NC) you can't show R rated movies without parental consent.

:grr:

I'm not sure I would like that refrain taught in school.

As much as I wouldn't mind my children watching 'Fahrenheit 9/11', I understand that a lot Republican parents would and we should be sensitive to all parties concerned.

I wonder if a lot of you would be singing a different tune if the school had decided to show 'FahrenHYPE 9/11' or some other highly divisive politically charged film, that didn't fall on the left side of the political spectrum.

are hung up on the R rating. It's absolutely meaningless, and yet this seems to be the sticking point for many of you who are parents. What does the rating matter? Why put more stock in what a bunch of anonymous MPAA people think is appropriate for your kids that what their own teachers thought? The teacher who showed it knew the kids personally and judged them able to deal with the R elements.

My 18 year boy, nephew and brother watched my copy last night. It must of been as good as I thought when I seen it. They were all kind of glued to their seat. It also seems interesting to point for young people and the thought of having to go into the military for one reason or another. They can learn why it would be such a stupid reason to loose ones life.

The one glaring point in parallels between Viet Nam and Iraq is they are both wars to benefit or shore up the corporate largess. The corporate press will never point this out and historically they wont record it as such.

the school made a decision it did not have a right to make, no matter what the content. When the school start making decisions countering my wishes, beliefs, and concerns, that is over the line. I don't care what it is about.

If you have reason your child can be taught at home by a structured criteria under your instruction. I tried it for a year, but it really don't work that well, kids need the social structure. But if your really desperate it's there.

I applaud teachers for their courage and dedication. The problem I see is stupid politics getting in their way

that I teach nothing about the Holocaust as part of the history of WWII? He explicitly told me that it was a myth and that his daughter wouldn't be exposed to it. I politely showed him that it was part of the curriculum. He withdrew his daughter from school.

I'm not arguing the validity of F9/11, or the Holocaust, or anything else historical. I'm simply saying the school overstepped their authority by making a decision a parent should make.

They are, after all, the ones who face being drafted and will be allowed to vote in a few months in most cases.

For right-wing balance, they can be shown a taped newscast of Fox news or two. A dire prescription, but worth it for them to see what is in store.

Biased? Clearly.

Truthful? 100%

Hmmm... now which one would I pick, even if it DID hurt....

My daughter is nearly 17 and watched it with me on DVD. She was fascinated by it and said it should be on tv and that everyone should have the chance to watch. How's that for a smart kid?

Pretty conservative Texas town. I was amazed that it was shown at all. Banning it in Beaumont surprises me none.