Santa Paula Has Tougher Film Rules

While the Santa Paula Union High School District recently disciplined a teacher after she showed an R-rated film to her students, a number of other Ventura County districts do not prohibit showing such movies to high school classes, with proper approval.

Districts that permit R-rated movies require that the films have some relation to the curriculum and that teachers receive administrative and parental approval to show the films.

That’s relatively lax compared with Santa Paula, where officials require both parental and school board approval to show any film and ban the showing of R-rated films altogether.

The district’s policy was recently put to the test, when English teacher Mary Louise Rawn-Peterson was arrested in front of her students in a standoff with school officials over her showing of the R-rated “American Beauty.”

Rawn-Peterson was placed on administrative leave and the school board has decided against renewing her contract for next year.

The district attorney’s office announced last week that she will not face trespassing charges stemming from her arrest for refusing to leave the classroom to meet with school officials.

Even in districts where more mature fare is permitted, however, officials said “American Beauty” probably would not win parental or administrative approval, even if, as Rawn-Peterson contends, the Oscar-nominated film had an educational component.

The movie, about a man experiencing a midlife crisis who falls in love with his teenage daughter’s classmate, includes sexual content and drug use.

Rawn-Peterson has said she showed the film to her senior English class as part of its study of the poet William Blake and his themes of self-awareness.

“Sometimes you get teachers talking about academic freedom,” said Sharon McClain, assistant superintendent for the Ojai Unified School District. “Well, guess what: That’s for college.

“She was wrong to show it,” McClain said. “I can think of a lot of other things to do to talk about William Blake and self-knowledge.”

McClain cited “The Diary of Anne Frank” as an example.

“There’s a nobility to [that story,]” she said.

The Ojai district does not have a written policy about showing movies in the classroom, but instead applies a general rule requiring that all supplemental material be related to class curriculum, McClain said.

She said that teachers are not required to seek a principal’s permission to show a film. But she said they should.

In the Oxnard Union High School District, R-rated movies are specifically prohibited, Assistant Supt. Gary Davis said.

But he said, like educators in other local districts, Oxnard teachers have wide latitude in showing movies rated G and PG as long as they are tied to class subject matter.

“But we expect them not to show them too often or as a reward, “ Davis said.

He said the district does not permit R-rated movies because many parents look to the motion picture industry’s rating system as a guide. That system forbids anyone under 17 years old from watching an R-rated movie without being accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

“We’re not the students’ families,” he said. “It’s more prudent to not show films with the language, sex and violence” of R-rated movies.

But a number of school officials find enough merit in some R-rated films to permit a classroom screening.

They cited the landmark Holocaust drama “Schindler’s List” as an example.

Chuck Eklund, director of secondary education for Conejo Valley Unified, said the film has been shown in the district’s high school history classes with both parental and administrative approval.

“It’s really appropriate at the right grade level,” said Jerry Morris, head of the social sciences department at Thousand Oaks High.

The film also has been shown at two Ventura Unified high schools with permission from the school board and parents, officials said.

The Ventura district does not have a formal in-class film policy, but defers to school principals, said Assistant Supt. Jerry Dannenberg.

The principals at Ventura and Buena high schools require teachers to obtain parental permission to show PG-13 films, and both parent and board approval for movies with an R rating.

Teachers in the district are not required to obtain principals’ permission to show G and PG movies.

Larry Emrich, principal at Ventura High School, said the PG-rated “Jurassic Park” could be appropriate for a science class dealing with the subject of DNA.

But he said he would hope that teachers would not show the entire film.

“They don’t have time to show a film over two or three days,” he said.

In the wake of revelations that “American Beauty” had been shown in a Santa Paula classroom, Buena High School Principal Mike Johnson said he decided to remind teachers of his film policy.

Last week, he sent a letter to each teacher.

“If you’re prudent, that’s what you do,” he said. “If [teachers] weren’t sure, they are now.”