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Big Kids

27th Oct 2021

Parents outraged after school cancels play because it had a gay character in it

Melissa Carton

This is shocking.

A school in Ohio has come under fire after it cancelled one of its annual plans because one of the characters is gay.

Hillsboro High School was set to put on a production of She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, but pulled the play to the shock and dismay of students and parents of the school.

The high school said that their reasoning for cancelling the play was because they deemed the material ‘too inappropriate’ for their students.

“The district’s decision to cancel the fall play is based on the play being inappropriate for our K-12 audience.

This production is recommended for ages 12 and older due to the language and mature content. As a district, we based our decision on the play’s use of inappropriate language, profanity, homophobic slurs, sexual innuendos and graphic violence.”

Many of the parents feel like this is not an acceptable reason as students at the school had been rehearsing the Young Adventurer version of the play.

The “Young Adventurer’s Edition” of the play has aged-down characters and less sexual content, purposely making it age appropriate for young audiences.

Parents feel that the play was not cancelled for any inappropriate material but because the school was uncomfortable about their being a gay character in the production;

“It was inappropriate for them to do and it was a wrong thing for the school to have allowed that influence to cause them to make the decision to cancel the show.”

Parents and students are now fundraising for a production of the play to be put on in a non-school related location so that all of the hard work the students have put in will not be in vain.

Students at Hillsboro had been rehearsing the play for weeks before it was cancelled by their school.