Grandfield_A controversial play could cost Grandfield High School teacher Debra Taylor her job.  She teaches the school’s Ethics and Street Law class, and says she was told by Superintendent Ed Turlington not to run a play titled “The Laramie Project.”  The play is about a gay person who was murdered.  After being forbidden to put on the play, Taylor held a mock funeral for the play in class so students could have closure.  She says the mock funeral got her suspended.

7News spoke with Taylor, students, and parents on Thursday, but Turlington did not comment after our calls or emails.  Taylor says she can’t comment either, but she hopes for a positive outcome. 

The students say the superintendent didn’t think the subject matter of the play was appropriate for the community.  Student Amber Squires says she doesn’t understand why her teacher was suspended.  She says the class has covered other mature matters in the past, and that the matter must have been sensitive to school officials.  “Our ethics class goes over stuff like that all the time,” she said.  “Abortion, stem cells – this topic was very sensitive to our school or the school board.”

Amber says it wasn’t the sensitive subject matter that may have caused controversy.  “They were trying to turn it into that we were promoting gay rights’ or something,” she said.  Her mother agrees and wonders why Turlington waited until the students had worked for one month on the play before cancelling it.  “He would know in advance what it was supposed to be about – that’s what I don’t understand about this whole thing is about,” said Elizabeth Squires.

Elizabeth says the entire thing may have been a misunderstanding from the beginning.  She says the superintendent should have given it more thought.  “He just took it the wrong way,” she said.  “I don’t think he read the script, or knew what the story was really about.”  Amber says she now is using her teachers own classroom lessons to defend her.  “She always taught us to speak our minds and have our voices heard,” she said.

Amber says that the class has been turned into a reading class, and students have had to start the class over.  She says they have had to learn a completely new curriculum.  Turlington says the school board plans to meet next week to determine whether they will keep Taylor on as a teacher.  He says he may be able to comment after that meeting.

 See Grandfield teacher suspended for controversial play surrounding …

KSWO 

A threatened mass protest by an anti-gay US church failed to materialise when only one demonstrator turned up.

Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the Westboro Baptist Church were banned from entering the UK to protest against a play in Hampshire.

They had urged a picket of Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke over the staging of The Laramie Project, a play about a man killed for being gay.

But only one protester arrived and was heckled away by counter-demonstrators.

Play supporter Blake West was among about 50 students who protested against Westboro church outside the college on Friday.

 See Planned anti-gay demo falls flat
BBC News, UK -

PLATTSBURGH — Controversial anti-gay church leader Fred Phelps and his followers are planning another visit to Plattsburgh.

Phelps and crew are planning to picket at Plattsburgh High School and Plattsburgh State Friday, March 6, for 40 to 45 minutes at each site.

The anti-gay members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, are protesting the High School’s Gay/Straight Alliance and a performance of the play “The Laramie Project” at the college.

“The Laramie Project” depicts the story of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man from Wyoming who was killed in 1998 because of his sexuality. See Anti-gay group headed to Plattsburgh again
Plattsburgh Press Republican, NY