PAYING ATTENTION!

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Men in Motion Comes to Lawrence High
So many questions so few answers!

-Tom Duggan

If there is one thing I have never been accused of it’s being a prude. Maybe today that’s going to change. There is a first for everything. It could be that I’m just getting old and losing touch with the nature of acceptable behavior in our public schools. It’s possible but I don’t think so.

But I had to question myself recently as I sat in amazement to watch an event at Lawrence High School being broadcast on the Lawrence educational channel. Move over Men in Motion, Lawrence High has put you to shame.

The event was the Mr. Lawrence High School competition. Young high school boys come dancing onto the Lawrence high auditorium stage and rub oil on themselves, danced and touch themselves inappropriately in front of a screaming crowd of high school girls, causing shrieks in the audience that would break a wine glass four blocks away. Is this appropriate behavior for high school kids at a school sponsored event? Moreover, is this appropriate programming for our educational channel? Isn’t anyone at Lawrence High school paying attention to these events? They are being held at under their supervision.

And Mr. LHS is not the first time inappropriate content has aired on channel 10. Less than year ago my 12 year old niece was visiting so I told her to watch channel 10 and learn something. What she learned was a series of four letter words and racial epithets by a rapper who was clearly educating our young people. So I called the powers that be and made my dissatisfaction known. The program stopped immediately. But nothing has changed concerning the lack of oversight of this kind of material airing on our tax payer funded education channel.

When I complained about the inappropriate sexual content of the Mr. Lawrence High competition, I was told by two school committee members that it would be "looked into." As of the publication of this column, I have happened upon the strip tease more than a dozen times. It has never been discussed at a school committee meeting and to my knowledge no one at Lawrence High has been held responsible, or even told not to do it again next year.

This was an event that would make any mature adult pause to question whether we should be encouraging this kind of behavior among our high school kids. And it begs the question, who is in control over at Lawrence High? The only answer I can come up with is, the students are in control. There were adult class advisors, teachers and other adults present at the Mr. LHS event. It was video taped and approved for public airing on the educational channel by adults. And the event itself had to be approved by either the principal or an assistant principal, after being organized by the adult class advisor. The event itself was supervised by adults as well.

So why didn’t someone speak out and stop this event beforehand? Are there no adults at Lawrence High School who understand that 16-18 year old boys ripping their shirts off and pouring oil on their chest in front of high school girls is a bad idea? And where are the parents? When I spoke to members of the School Committee the video of this event had been airing for at least three weeks, and yet they knew nothing about it. There had been no complaint or outcry from the parents of these young girls. Is no one paying attention to what is being taught at our high school? Or does nobody really care?

I can’t decide what’s worse here, the fact that teachers and administrators allowed the even to take place and helped to organize it, or the fact that it was videotaped to air on channel 10, which is supposed to be a channel for children.

I cringe when I watch high school events on channel 10 because I just can’t stand it when a play is going on, or a speaker is addressing the students, and there is chaos in the crowd, loud talking, yelling and joking from the students who have no respect for the people on stage. We should be teaching these kids respect. Instead we are teaching them how to put on a strip show. There is no discipline at LHS and worst of all there is no attempt to control the behavior of these kids when they are acting poorly. Now just imagine, if this behavior is allowed and encouraged by teachers at a public event, what the hell is going on in these classrooms when there is no camera?

What are we doing at Lawrence high? I say we, because it is our tax money and it is our public high school. Can anyone tell me how this got by a dozen adults who saw nothing wrong with putting on the event and airing it for grammar school kids to see on channel 10? Is there anyone out there who can defend this? I know we are now in the MTV generation and everything on television and radio has some kind of sexual connotation aimed at young people, but does it have to invade our schools as well? Does it have to be condoned by so-called educators? I keep looking for answers on this and all I get is apathy from the people who are supposed to be leaders and role models. Is there not one parent of a high school girl who thinks this is wrong? Or have I just joined the old foggy club a little before my time? So many questions. So few answers.

What I would like to see is some accountability at the school and a few adults who have the good sense to know this is wrong and do something about it. I am not looking for anyone’s head here. I am purposely withholding the names of those responsible at Lawrence high because the issue here is not about any one individual being punished for this. It’s about us. All of us. We have quietly accepted the over sexualization of our children and become desensitized to it. And we wonder why there are so many social problems with teenagers in poor cities like Lawrence. Do you think Andover or North Andover would have allowed this? I tell you for a fact that they wouldn’t.

The people in this city had better wake up and become more involved with their children and the educational system that so strongly influences your kids. I don’t care what adults choose to do outside our schools and government institutions. But I do care when our public schools get into the business of encouraging inappropriate behavior among children.

Allowing this event to take place and marketing it to kids on TV is wrong. It’s wrong when MTV does it. It’s wrong when TV and radio shows do it, and it’s wrong when our high school does it.

And I just can’t help but wonder, in a school system that is constantly under the scrutiny of the Department of Education and the Boston press, with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state and in the only high school in Massachusetts with no accreditation, is anyone out there paying attention?