Zombies, Hysterics, And A Letter Home

so, things took a turn for the interesting this morning when one (now former) student’s mother came to school demanding that her child be removed from my class and put into another program due to the “inappropriate material” that we are working on.

by inappropriate material, she was referring to the zombie film that the class is currently in the process of producing. I, of course, found the whole thing rather amusing, although the program director was less then pleased when the hysterical woman began threatening to involve the school board. citing the lack of concern for the children’s well-being by allowing them to continue to work on a film involving zombies.

the strange thing is that I have no part in deciding what material the class works on, rather the kids brainstorm to come up with story ideas, and then vote to choose which one they most want to turn into a film. Our zombie flick being one of the tamer options I might add (I would have hated to see her react to one of the other voted upon choices - a film about a serial killer who collects his victim’s hearts and keeps them in jars in order to get superpowers. or the one i was pulling for, about “terrorists attacking a school and killing off children until their parents stop making war on their country”). but even after this was explained, the woman suggested that my job as a teacher was to tell the children no they are not allowed to work on “scary material.”

now, don’t get me wrong, i have no problems with a parent dictating what their child is exposed to (in their feeble attempts to shield them from the horrors that lurk around every corner - the least concerning being zombies). however, i also am pretty sure that the extent of gore and horror that will be produced in the class will probably pale in comparison to anything that the child (10-11 years old) has already seen in their life (that is, of course, unless the child is kept locked in a bubble when not in school).

so, now, in order to move forward i had to write a letter home to all the children’s parents asking for them to sign the “permission slip” to allow us to continue with our zombie film.

as one child so eloquently put it, “that’s stupid.”

here below is said letter for your enjoyment.

i will have you know that the program director was extremely impressed by my letter writing ability, and she told me i was a very good writer. I responded by telling her that i would be happy to compose any other future letters home to parents as the need arose.

anyways, keep your fingers cross…we’ll find out tomorrow if the “Hotel of No Return” will continue….