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Parents voice concern over movies BRAINERD SCHOOL BOARD Staff Writer Should the Brainerd School Board further restrict teachers on what movies or videos they allow to be shown in the classroom or leave that up to the teacher's discretion?
It depends on whom you ask.
At Monday's school board meeting, school board members held the first reading of its addition to the video-use policy, regarding criteria for the use of commercial and educational videos. The issue will now go back to a curriculum committee meeting for possible revisions and possibly could be formally adopted at the next board meeting.
The proposed policy includes that all videos shown to students must be directly related to the curriculum and not be used as a reward, entertainment or time filler. Teachers also must give advance notice to parents of any commercial videos that would be shown and the parents may restrict their own child's viewing of the videos.
Board members heard from a few concerned parents, as well as teachers and staff members, about the policy, which was developed by a school committee.
Nancy Dietz and Brian Dirks, a Baxter couple with a ninth-grader and 11th-grader at Brainerd High School, told the board that they're concerned about the quantity of movies being shown in the classroom and said the policy falls short of defining what is considered appropriate movie content. Dirks said that during the last six to eight weeks of school last spring his son was shown six full-length movies in class.
"We're talking about trying to find more time in the school day and it's important not to waste the time we do have," Dirks said.
Dirks said he and his wife believe that students are being sent mixed messages, by being told they can't drink alcohol, smoke or participate in other inappropriate behavior but are being shown movies that include these things in class. He asked that Hollywood-created movies not be shown, other than documentaries.
"If we're holding students to those high standards, shouldn't the teachers be held to that same high standard?" Dirks asked. "I think we can still teach effectively without some of these materials."
Barb Greatens, Nisswa, who has three children in the school district, said last year, when her son was in eighth grade, one of the English teachers showed the PG-13-rated movie, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which she said contained nudity and sexual references. Her son's teacher and a couple other teachers showed portions or edited versions of the movie but one teacher showed the full version, she said.
"The reason you don't have more parents here (about the video-use policy) is because they don't know their students were shown that movie," said Greatens, who asked that the board not use the movie industry's ratings system for this policy.
Chris Kelly, Forestview media specialist who was on the committee to create this policy, said the proposed policy creates clear guidelines without censorship and said she believes this policy addresses these issues.
"We all recognized that not all parents want students to view movies with certain subject matter," Kelly said.
BHS Principal Andrea Rusk said the policy needs to have some flexibility to meet the needs of all students - not just elementary, but high school students as well.
Tim Edinger, a teacher and president of Education Minnesota Brainerd, said he supports the proposed policy but not one that would be more restrictive.
"Meaningful learning does take place using videos in the classroom," Edinger said. "We can take kids to places and view phenomena we would otherwise not be able to view."
Edinger said banning Hollywood-created or commercially produced movies wouldn't serve a purpose since many of them don't have to be edited by teachers.
"This is a very explosive issue, potentially, and must be dealt with in an open fashion," board member Lew Hudson said. He said as a former newspaperman, he's concerned about first-amendment rights and censorship.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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