So ahhhhh (that would be a sigh, not an orgasm), NO ‘Vagina Monologues’ at Amherst Regional High School this year! What a shame. Violence against women in Amherst will now get completely out of control.
Last year of course the High School kiddies did an encore performance sanctioned by clueless, spineless PC school officials–although it took four years to get around to it. In 2007 Principal Mark Jackson actually showed some backbone (which he probably does not do all that often) and told the kids no way in Hell. So they went to Northampton Center for the Arts and did it there.
But the following year Mr. Jackson (having attended the NoHo performance with his feminist wife) was so impressed (with all of a month’s preparation) he allowed ARHS sanctioning and use of the public school building. Although the turn out last year was not nearly what it was in 2004, down from a sold out 800 to only 500.
And now this year, ZIP. However will Eve Ensler afford cosmetic surgery?
Of course, Amherst Schools are currently beyond disarray. Four new principals (out of only six) hired in one year. Jackson is the most experienced Amherst Principal with a pathetic five years under his belt (replacing another male principal who apparently made a pass at a 15-year-old male student and has not been heard from since) but Jackson is currently on personal leave for this entire month.
Second in command Marta Guevara--with more experience at ARHS than Principal Jackson--is off for the entire year. She championed the 2004 ‘VM’ performance and later banned the term “freshman” in the High School because it was sexist.
And of course uber-slick Superintendent Jere Hochman left for greener pastures (meaning way more than double salary) giving the Regional School Committee only three weeks notice of his exit. So now we have interim married Co-Superintendents Alton Sprague and Helen Vivian--both W-A-Y beyond retirement age--trying to keep the flotilla of leaky ships from sinking while using prehistoric methodology.
And there’s that little matter of the Middle School Pool closed because bureaucrats can’t handle one year’s notice for a $2,000 retrofit item. And no hot water at Wildwood Elementary School, and God only knows how many safety violations at Marks Meadow.
Rob Okun, who twice over four years wrote touchy-feely drivel editorials supporting the pernicious production on town property by underage teenagers, is no longer director of the 'Amherst Men’s Resource Center For Change' ensconced in a tax-exempt downtown Amherst building (Maybe he had a sex change operation.) And of course last year they were the main recipient of money raised by the kid’s production. Gee, no conflict there.
Sophie Rabinovitz, who was involved in the original production in 2004 (the year Amherst was the only High School in America to sanction the play after nixing 'West Side Story' in 1999 because of racist concerns) but she and the school sat out 05,and 06 then she spearheaded the production in Northampton in 07 and convinced the Big Old Teddy Bear Mark Jackson to allow it at the school in 2008.
Of course now that she has graduated the organization she founded, “Women’s Rights Club” also seems to have floundered [Going from 85 members in 07 down to only 45 this past year.
But hey, she has over 500 “friends” on Facebook. Ahhhhh, the advantage of promoting young girls engaging in public masturbation, or pedophilia (as long as it is women on girl.)
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On Jan 6, 2009, at 9:45:56 PM, amherstac@aol.com wrote to Jacksonmk@arps.org:
Hey Mark,
So it's that time of the year: Are the kids planning an encore performance?????
Larry
On Jan 7, 2009, at 2:27:45 PM, "MARTA GUEVARA"
I hope you and your family are well! I'm not working at the HS this year, so I have no idea about the monologues. While Mr. Jackson is away, Ms. Leonard is acting principal, so I'm including her on this reply.
Dr. Marta M. Guevara
Assistant Principal
On Jan 9, 2009, at 8:14:20 AM, "Annie Leonard"
Larry:
No plans to do the Vagina Monologues at the HS this year.
--Annie
Annie Leonard
Assistant Principal
Amherst Regional High School
39 comments:
Yeah, go get 'em Larry. The VM really caused the world to go to hell in a hand basket. Gangs of feminists roaming the streets, plagues of locusts, seven years of eternal night...or not.
No noticeable deleterious effects from the performances of VM.
None. Zip.
Just say'n.
Larry,
Recently I heard someone say, “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.” We need you to investigate this. There could be a rash of broken mothers backs if you don’t spring into action.
Hmmm... No "deleterious effects" unless you consider the little old town to have become an international embarrassment.
As Bill O'Reilly so sagaciously pointed out (to his 3 million viewers) in 2004 Amherst was the "Village of the Damned!"
Um, exactly how did that come about? Because Larry Kelley, self-promoter extraordinare was faxing Bill O'Reilly.
Come on pal, this is the 21'st Century. Actually I emailed him.
And his producer who called me said that they "almost" did a segment on the 'West Side Story' fiasco five years earlier but it got caught in a weird news cycle so they could not get to it while it was still hot.
But then when they read my Press Release opening line about the "only town is HISTORY to cancel a production of 'West Side Story' was now going to be the only town in the nation to give official approval for High School kids to perform to Ms. Ensler's decidedly 'R" rated claptrap..."
And you needed to write a Press Release and email them because???
Ah, yes, Bill O'Reilly, who brought us the made up baloney that there is a national underground network of pink pistol-packing lesbians that is terrorizing America.
No wonder he loved the story.
So why exactly was last year's encore performance of VM considered by you to be a "spineless" act? You can disagree with the merits of the decision to put on the show, but that decision was anything but spineless. Standing up to a bully like you, with your incredible penchants for "journalistic" attention getting, was a brave act and a great example to our children of the importance of standing by one's principles, even in the face of intimidation.
You emailed a home-made press release to Bill O'Reilly?
That's pathetic.
...no more hiding behind anonymous for cowardly commenters....
"...no more hiding behind anonymous for cowardly commenters...."
HAHAHAH. What's that mean? You hacked Larry and you're going to hunt the anons down and terrorize them?!!?
Bring it on...
RE: Larry on Bill O'Reilly
15 minutes of fame, a lifetime of shame.
We're getting off the track. Is there a serious problem with our schools that could cause serious harm to students or not?
No name calling here but come on folks let's focus on the maintenance department and make sure our kids are safe.
Anon 101
So Anon 2:43 PM (at least I get the option of choosing the nitwits for response):
So they "stood up to a bully" like me back in 2004? Well gee, what the hell happened in 2005, 2006 and 2007?
Or did our saintly school officials just become spineless freaken whimps those three years?
And remember last year when ARHS performed the play to a way less than sold out audience, Jane Fonda used the "c-word" live on 'The Today Show' and all Hell broke loose (the nitwit host actually apologized a few moments later).
Yes. this was the same news/ENTERTAINMENT organization that in 2004 gave the original Amherst teen-ager 7 minutes of live national airtime in their New York studio with Ms. Ensler siting next to her and me only 12 seconds on tape.
Yeah, that was fair and balanced.
12 seconds because you had no case.
VM was a theatre production where everyone going to it knew what they were getting. Jane Fonda on the Today Show is completely different because a general TV audience doesn't know what will be coming up when they tune in.
You and Bill O'Reilly both like to call people names. You use nitwit whenever you have been out argued and he uses pinhead. You are of the same stripe, blowhards that resort to cheap name calling tactics.
"sat out 05,and 06"
Of course, no school does the same play every year.
Actually, the funny thing is I witnessed Anne Awad and Robie Hubley coming out of the 2004 'VM' production arm-in-arm and thought to myself "Hmmm, is she not married to another guy?"
And of course I need not remind you of her disdain for the display of the American flag.
Fascinating how all these seemingly trivial issues demonstrate whether someone has a core or not (obviously something you would know nothing about).
Anon: 4:10
Unlike 'West Side Story' in 1999, the 2004 Vagina Monologues production was NEVER the "official" schools play--as spineless school bureaucrats were quick to point out in 2004.
It was then and again in 2007 just one of those run-of-the-mill 'Only in Amherst' crap offerings (with all of a one-month rehearsal time).
But hey, we're talking masturbation--so I guess the kiddies should be able to figure it out pretty quickly
Wow Larry. Anne Awad, Robie Hubley, The VM and disdain for The Flag all in one comment. Speaking of masturbating, you must really be getting off on that one. The only thing that could possibly be better is if Anne and Robie golfed at Cherry Hill before attending the play or washed their hands in lukewarm water on their way out of the high school. You really are a laughing stock.
"No plans to do the Vagina Monologues at the HS this year."
In other words, I have no news but since I make something out of nothing, it's good enough for me.
"just one of those run-of-the-mill 'Only in Amherst' crap offerings (with all of a one-month rehearsal time)."
Ah, yes, noted theatre critic Lawrence Kelley with his erudite review.
These are high school kids who rehearsed many hours to put on a good production. Don't let your shallowness put down their hard work.
5:18 Anon nitwit:
Yeah, but THEY are gone, Cherry Hill will soon be gone and you're a freaken nitwit.
Cherry Hill will be here long after you are dead and gone. It's more entrenched now (since it's now part of LSSE) than ever. Good going.
How many times an hour do you call somebody a nitwit? Tsk, tsk, not a very good role model.
"Wow Larry. Anne Awad, Robie Hubley, The VM and disdain for The Flag all in one comment. Speaking of masturbating, you must really be getting off on that one. The only thing that could possibly be better is if Anne and Robie golfed at Cherry Hill before attending the play or washed their hands in lukewarm water on their way out of the high school. You really are a laughing stock."
You really are a laughing stock?
YOU REALLY ARE A LAUGHING STOCK?!!?
What about a school's maintenance/transportation dept management that're fully out of control DON'T you understand? Hmm?
What about a crushed child do you find amusing? Hmm, Idiot? You think that's FUNNY?
AND what about this situation makes you attack Larry? Or are you taking orders from Bohonowicz and Sprague?
Hey Larry, while your busy reporting what's not happening this year don't forget to mention that Lord Jeffrey Amherst will not be giving blankets with smallpox to indians again this year.
Small pox, blankets, hahahahahahahha...
You think this is funny as well?
A few years ago an non-qualified individual, while working on a school vehicle, was injured, and BLINDED himself in one eye. That person still lives in town. Yet YET they still allow/ed any old maintenance person, qualified or not, to "fix" the very same vehicles that transport Amherst children day after day, year after year...
Ask Peter Crouse, he remembers.
So yeah, keep attacking Larry until the headline is "Amherst child dead in transportation mishap"... (Oh yeah that's ALREADY happened).
Idiots.
"So yeah, keep attacking Larry until the headline is "Amherst child dead in transportation mishap"... (Oh yeah that's ALREADY happened)."
Could the mighty Larry have prevented this? oh, mighty Larry, why did you forsake us. Why did this tragedy have to happen? Why?
Too bad.
I thought the students did an excellent job at last year's performance.
Yeah, but they fell apart over the past 12 months. So what does that say about them?
Better yet--what does it say about the nitwit adults who let them do, ummm, well, errrr, you know, that freaken piece of, umm, err, you know... art?
The VM was NOT sold out last year?!?!?
I wanted to go (to write it up for an academic journal) and was not able to get in. All sold out, I was told.
And if it *wasn't* -- then I have a sex discrimination complaint....
FYI- Marta is at Central office these days
Hey Ed,
No, unless they somehow lost 300 seats in the School it was not nearly sold out.
Marta in Central Office? Hmmm...So she has been Vice Principal forever: is that a maybe a, you know, demotion?
"supporting the pernicious production on town property"
Pernicious means "irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining."
Can you find anyone who was harmed in any way in even the slightest manner?
Yeah, the reputation of the town.
Last I heard the reputation of the town is just fine. Property values still going up.
Yeah, that's why homeowners swamped the assessor with requests for abatements
Exactly! Because that pernicious VM drove the property values up! Damn feminists, they're after our property values...and our precious bodily fluids.
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