CROSS RIVER, N.Y. -- A public high school has suspended three 16-year-old girls who disobeyed officials by saying the word "vagina" during a reading from "The Vagina Monologues."
Their defiant stand is being applauded by the author of the well-known feminist play, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors.
"Don't we want our children to resist authority when it's not appropriate and wise?" said author Eve Ensler.
The three honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word because "we knew it was the right thing to do. Since we're comfortable saying it, we should make other people comfortable saying it," Levinson said.
The excerpt from "Monologues" was read Friday night, among various readings at an event sponsored by the literary magazine at John Jay High School in Cross River, a New York City suburb. Among the other readings was a student's original work and the football coach quoting Shakespeare.
The girls took turns reading the excerpt until they came to the word, then said it together.
"My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women's army," they read. "I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."
The suspension has prompted allegations of censorship. But Principal Richard Leprine said Tuesday that the girls were punished not because of what they said but because they disobeyed orders not to say it.
In a statement, Leprine said that because the event was open to the community, including children, the word "vagina" was not appropriate. He said the girls had been told when they auditioned that they could not use the word.
Reback said Tuesday that no one in the audience was younger than high school age. "What did we do that was so wrong?" she asked. "We were insubordinate, but the reason we were insubordinate was that we talked about our body."
The principal said that the school respects students' right to freedom of expression. "That right, however, is not unfettered.
"When a student is told by faculty members not to present specified material because of the composition of the audience and they agree to do so, it is expected that the commitment will be honored and the directive will be followed," Leprine said. "When a student chooses not to follow the directive, consequences follow."
Bob Lichtenfeld, superintendent of the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, which includes John Jay, said, "If the high school students wanted to put on a production of 'The Vagina Monologues,' they probably wouldn't have had any opposition. As long as the intended audience knows what to expect, we don't have a problem with it."
Ensler said the girls were right for "standing up for art and against censorship."
Eve Ensler, author of 'The Vagina Monologues'
AP Image
Eve Ensler, author of 'The Vagina Monologues'
"The school's position is absurd, a throwback to the Dark Ages," she said. "So what, if children were to hear the word? Would that be terrible? We're not talking about plutonium here, or acid rain, a word that destroys lives. It's a body part!"
She said she called the girls to support them because "the school put them in an impossible position."
The girls said they had the support of their parents. "To me, they were reciting literature in an educational forum and they did it with grace and dignity," said Dana Stahl, Elan Stahl's mother.
The girls will all serve one-day, in-school suspensions, beginning Wednesday.
"The Vagina Monologues," presented as various women's thoughts about sexual subjects, has become a phenomenon since its Off-Broadway opening in 1996. All-star readings are common and on "V-Day" each year, usually Feb. 14, local volunteers, college students and a few high schools produce benefit performances of the play to raise funds to battle violence against women. The "V-Day" Internet site says there were more than 2,700 such events last year.
Performances occasionally provoke controversy.
Conservative Catholics criticized the University of Notre Dame's decision to allow a performance on campus last April. This year, student planners couldn't get an academic sponsor.
Last month, a board member of a central Kentucky historic theater quit after objecting to the theater's marquee advertising "The Vagina Monologues."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
Their defiant stand is being applauded by the author of the well-known feminist play, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors.
"Don't we want our children to resist authority when it's not appropriate and wise?" said author Eve Ensler.
The three honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word because "we knew it was the right thing to do. Since we're comfortable saying it, we should make other people comfortable saying it," Levinson said.
The excerpt from "Monologues" was read Friday night, among various readings at an event sponsored by the literary magazine at John Jay High School in Cross River, a New York City suburb. Among the other readings was a student's original work and the football coach quoting Shakespeare.
The girls took turns reading the excerpt until they came to the word, then said it together.
"My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women's army," they read. "I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."
The suspension has prompted allegations of censorship. But Principal Richard Leprine said Tuesday that the girls were punished not because of what they said but because they disobeyed orders not to say it.
In a statement, Leprine said that because the event was open to the community, including children, the word "vagina" was not appropriate. He said the girls had been told when they auditioned that they could not use the word.
Reback said Tuesday that no one in the audience was younger than high school age. "What did we do that was so wrong?" she asked. "We were insubordinate, but the reason we were insubordinate was that we talked about our body."
The principal said that the school respects students' right to freedom of expression. "That right, however, is not unfettered.
"When a student is told by faculty members not to present specified material because of the composition of the audience and they agree to do so, it is expected that the commitment will be honored and the directive will be followed," Leprine said. "When a student chooses not to follow the directive, consequences follow."
Bob Lichtenfeld, superintendent of the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, which includes John Jay, said, "If the high school students wanted to put on a production of 'The Vagina Monologues,' they probably wouldn't have had any opposition. As long as the intended audience knows what to expect, we don't have a problem with it."
Ensler said the girls were right for "standing up for art and against censorship."
Eve Ensler, author of 'The Vagina Monologues'
AP Image
Eve Ensler, author of 'The Vagina Monologues'
"The school's position is absurd, a throwback to the Dark Ages," she said. "So what, if children were to hear the word? Would that be terrible? We're not talking about plutonium here, or acid rain, a word that destroys lives. It's a body part!"
She said she called the girls to support them because "the school put them in an impossible position."
The girls said they had the support of their parents. "To me, they were reciting literature in an educational forum and they did it with grace and dignity," said Dana Stahl, Elan Stahl's mother.
The girls will all serve one-day, in-school suspensions, beginning Wednesday.
"The Vagina Monologues," presented as various women's thoughts about sexual subjects, has become a phenomenon since its Off-Broadway opening in 1996. All-star readings are common and on "V-Day" each year, usually Feb. 14, local volunteers, college students and a few high schools produce benefit performances of the play to raise funds to battle violence against women. The "V-Day" Internet site says there were more than 2,700 such events last year.
Performances occasionally provoke controversy.
Conservative Catholics criticized the University of Notre Dame's decision to allow a performance on campus last April. This year, student planners couldn't get an academic sponsor.
Last month, a board member of a central Kentucky historic theater quit after objecting to the theater's marquee advertising "The Vagina Monologues."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
