Schools look at movies, restrictions in classroom

The superintendent of the Missouri school district that recently banned two books —Slaughterhouse-Five and Twenty Boy Summer, could next be focusing on movies.

Vern Minor, who heads the Republic, Mo., district, has suggested it take a look at the appropriateness of movies shown in classrooms.

"The day may come when we have the discussion," says Minor, who thinks the school district might be able to use standards set by the motion picture industry in deciding which movies to show at schools.

• STORY: Book battles heat up over censorship vs. selection in school

Though there has been no formal board discussion, Minor has suggested G-rated movies be shown to elementary students, PG to middle-school students and PG-13 to high school students.

Public schools have long wrestled with the issue of which films are proper for their students. Michael O'Neil, communications coordinator for the National Coalition Against Censorship, warns against using Motion Picture Association of America ratings to regulate films at public schools.

"The ratings are designed to be descriptive of a film's content, not a one-size-fits all guide to the suitability of every film within a rating for every individual in an age group," he says. "It's impossible for a superintendent or anyone else to claim that all R-rated films are inappropriate for all the ages represented within a high school."

Teachers and parents, O'Neil adds, are "more than capable of evaluating age-appropriate films of educational value."

Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan are two R-rated films that educators have found helpful to teaching aspects of World War II, O'Neil says.

"It's a waste to take valuable, engaging tools away from teachers," he says.

Last year, the Council Rock School District in southeastern Pennsylvania upheld a policy that allows for R-rated movies in classrooms, after a parent requested such films be banned from the high school.

Diana Nolan, president of Parents Active in Responsible Education, a group formed to lobby against R-rated movies in the Council Rock School District, says she wants the students to be shielded from inappropriate content that adds nothing to their education.

"For the safety of our kids, that's the best," says Nolan, also a parent, of removing R-rated movies from classrooms. "You don't know the children's situations in their lives.

If such movies must be shown, they need to be rid of the content that gives them the R rating, because such content can be "devastating to the emotional and mental well being of our kids," she says.

Also last year, Marysville Exempted Village School District in Ohio temporarily suspended the showing of PG-13 and R-rated films in high school classes after receiving complaints from parents. The district policy later was strengthened to require parental permission for PG-13 and R-rated movies to be shown in high school classrooms.

"We added more hoops and more faculty review," school Superintendent Larry Zimmerman says. "I don't think banning R-rated movies will be the community standard for us," he says. "What is the community standard is communication with the parent. … We believe there are some educational values in those movies.We owe it to the public to give them advance notice."

In 2008, parents protested after a history teacher at Brookfield East High School in Wisconsin sent a notice that he might show clips from R-rated movies such asSchindler's List,Saving Private Ryan, Platoon,Glory and Mississippi Burning.

The parents said such movies had no place in high schools, according to media reports then.

A policy revised in 2009 extended parental notification to two weeks and asks parents to fill out a permission form before the showing of R-rated movies in high schools or PG-13 movies in middle schools, says Melinda Mueller, spokeswoman for the Elmbrook school district, which includes Brookfield East High School .

Tang also reports for the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader