The Jordan School District Board of Education will consider changes to its policy on selecting school plays at its meeting tonight. This comes after last spring’s production of “Dead Man Walking” at Bingham High School. Jordan School District Director of Communications Sandy Riesgraf says the revised policy allows the school district to better meet the community’s standards.
“More parents will have an opportunity to look at the plays, to review them, to look at the language and be apart of the decision making when it comes to how we choose our plays,” she says.
“Dead Man Walking,” a play that centers on the death penalty, drew complaints from the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, but school district officials previously told the Salt Lake Tribune they had received virtually no criticism before the group made an issue out of it.
The revised policy requires students to have a signed parental consent form before participating in a play and requires the district’s Drama Production Selection Committee to have parents serving on it. Riesgraf believes the revisions are an improvement.
“It’s a chance for us to educate ourselves and better educate the public. If we are all better educated I think we can do a better job as we select the plays, and put on the plays and make sure they do meet the community standards that are out there,” she says.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Auxiliary Services Building on Redwood Road in West Jordan.
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