South Williamsport Drama Teacher Fired After Cancellation of SPAMALOT

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this summer, via blogger and industry professional Howard Sherman, South Williamsport, a high school in Lycoming County, PA, had been forced to cancel their spring production of Monty Python's Spamalot due to "controversial content," which includes a homosexual marriage.

Following the decision, Principal Jesse Smith made a statement to the local paper, saying: "When we have extracurricular activities, we do not ask the students to make a choice as to what they might deem controversial material," and "I don't want kids to feel like they had to choose between performing and what they felt was controversial material. They should be able to sign up for a play and know that it's school-sponsored and they won't have to make a moral or ethical decision."

The next board meeting has been moved up to September 22 to address whether the show will go on.

Now Sherman reports that Dawn Burch, the drama director who first revaled that the show had been canceled by the school, was just fired via email due to "job performance." Sherman writes:

So now, less than a month after the administration's efforts to hide their own actions were revealed, Burch suddenly loses her job. Save for holding auditions and beginning rehearsals for the school's fall play, Alice in Wonderland, she has barely undertaken her job this year, as prior to that it was summer break. When exactly did these job performance issues come to light? Awfully coincidental, no?

I believe Burch has been fired for telling the truth. Burch has been fired for not being willing to accept that gay life was not something to be hidden away, not something to be ashamed of, not something to be afraid of. It hardly takes another Right-to-Know request to put together the pieces.

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