R-rated movies shown to students

William Chitwood

LA CRESCENTA -- In apparent violation of state and district rules,

teachers in two classes at Clark Magnet High School showed R-rated films

-- one solely for entertainment-- during school hours on Friday, Jan. 26,

the principal confirmed.

A ninth-grade English class viewed “Road Trip,” an R-rated comedy

packed with gratuitous nudity, profanity and adolescent raunch. The same

day, a ninth-grade technology literacy class watched the R-rated film

“The Matrix,” a science fiction thriller with scenes of graphic violence.

After being informed of student accounts by a journalist a week after

the incidents, Principal Doug Dall said he investigated the allegations

and determined that the films had indeed been used at Clark without

administrative approval. But students did not see all of either movie.

“They only saw about 10 minutes of “Road Trip,”’ Dall said.

On a student teacher’s last day in the class, the teacher allowed one

of the students to play the movie during the last few minutes of class

after a final exam, Dall said.

“When the master teacher returned to the class and saw what was

happening, she made them turn it off,” he said.

Dall acknowledged that the master teacher is ultimately accountable

for all classroom activity.

“The Matrix” was used to demonstrate computer graphics but that the

teacher should have sought permission owing to the R-rating, he said. The

teacher told him only portions of the movie were shown, Dall said.

Don Empey, deputy superintendent of educational services, said

teachers are required to get approval before showing movies in the

classroom and they must relate directly to the curriculum, he said.

“This does not rule out R-rated movies,” he said. “Teachers are not to

use parts of movies that show extreme violence or sexual scenes.”

Teachers violating policy are generally reprimanded by the principal.

If the problem continued, teachers could be suspended or dismissed, he

said.

Margo Minecki, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Office of

Education, said that while local districts have individual policies

governing use of media materials, the California Education Code also

requires that all activities in a public classroom be academically

relevant and age appropriate.

Dall said he does not intend to sanction either teacher at this time,

“but if it happens again, I will. We had a faculty meeting [after the

incidents] and reviewed the district policy on the use of media in the

classroom.”

The controversy over R-rated films and commercial films in general in

K-12 classrooms has mushroomed in Southern California during the past

year. A lawsuit filed last spring by the American Civil Liberties Union

cited classroom use of nonacademic films as a factor in substandard

education at 18 California schools.

Access to R-rated movies is restricted to those 17 and older unless

accompanied by an adult, and some school districts have an outright ban

on R-rated films, classic or otherwise.

A Ventura County instructor was sent home last spring and eventually

dismissed in connection with defiance of a school district policy over

presenting the Academy Award-winning R-rated “American Beauty” to her

English class.

The teacher had claimed that the critically acclaimed film, which

features sexual activity profanity and marijuana abuse, was academically

and aesthetically justified but she failed to secure required district

permission.

-- William Chitwood is a freelance writer. Staff writer Alecia Foster

contributed to this story.