Student says that College censored "talk" about an unprotected relationship 'with a boy' in a play about STDs; the school denies it and guarantees that it respects the debate
Rafael, a young man who had been cured of syphilis and was now part of a support group for people with Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
This was the character that the second-year high school student David Moraes, 16, I would interpret last week, at a knowledge fair in the Souza Leão de Candeias College.
The day before the presentation, Davi, who is gay, received an ultimatum: he would have to cut out the part that mentioned an unprotected relationship “with a boy” from his speech. Davi used social media to complain about what he considered censorship on the part of the school, which he responded by saying that he respects and debates the subject, and pointing out the “refusal to adapt the text” as the real problem in the episode.
According to Davi, the teacher responsible for the play argued that she would not be in the audience on the day of the performance and, therefore, if a parent complained, there would be no one to defend them. “But I didn’t agree,” said the student, who believes it is necessary to portray gay characters naturally. “In other plays, they usually have gay characters, but they are always made fun of, they serve as a comedic element. It's not a character that people will see themselves in, that bothers me a lot. I, as an openly gay man at school, wanted to act, because I see that the school's stance on this topic is one of omission”, explained the student, who avoided the role that would lead him to be diagnosed with AIDS, precisely to circumvent stereotypes involving homosexuals. Furthermore, he says that "the other characters also spoke the gender of the person they had a relationship with."
A coordinator of Souza Leão de Candeias, who did not want to be identified, denied that there was any type of censorship due to the character's sexual identity. “The construction of the piece was done in the classroom and he was going to say something else. The teacher asked him to interpret the speech that was planned, even so as not to get into that merit, and asked him to understand. It's not that it couldn't, but the play didn't address that issue. I am fully aware of our actions,” he declared.
Class and family support
Davi says that, before being removed from the play, he insisted on participating in rehearsals, maintaining the line in which Rafael would show himself to be gay. She says that the teacher, who then ordered him to leave the theater, caught her attention again and called the High School coordinator. “Then it was a bit of a mess because the students wanted to keep talking and the teacher was afraid of the reaction of the coordinator, who even said an infamous phrase: 'if you want to appear, wave a gay flag around' and ordered me to leave, but I didn’t leave”, reported the student. “That same day, this teacher’s excuse was that the management didn’t like this subject, they didn’t like the topic, that the school was private and I should respect what the management and the owner wanted”, the student said, angrily. , who complained to those responsible.
“After they banned me, I called my grandparents, who went to school, asked me, and when I was going home the teacher called me, asking if I didn't want to continue. But I didn't want to. They didn’t take into account what I wanted, they cut me off, they were completely inflexible and then they asked me to come back, on the same day, because of my family’s reaction”, explained Davi, who had already had problems due to his sexual identity before. of the case.
Check out the full clarification note from Colégio Souza Leão de Candeias:
Colégio Souza Leão de Candeias regrets the episode involving the theatrical presentation of the second year of high school on “Diseases, prevention in your hands”, in which there was a refusal to adapt the text.
During the rehearsals for the aforementioned play, there was a moment when, in the excerpt of the narrative text “Good evening, my name is Rafael, I contracted syphilis about a year ago, when I had unprotected sex with someone (…)”, the interpreter refused to use the noun “person”, insisting on using the word “boy”.
On that occasion, according to the interpretation of those who participated in the organization and elaboration of the texts, the changes formulated to denote a homosexual position to the character could raise a stereotype that the diseases covered would be associated with a certain sexual option, which is why a noun that would not lead to this type of conclusion, focusing on the topic of preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
Thus, despite the justifications that the guidelines did not derive from a prejudiced nature, the interpreter of that character declared that he was no longer interested in carrying out that work.
It should be noted that Colégio Souza Leão de Candeias respects and promotes debate on the topic, repudiating any type of prejudice, including that of gender and sexuality, especially because we also believe that the lack of knowledge feeds prejudices of all types, including those related to homosexuality.
At this point, it is important to emphasize that this theme was the subject of one of the presentations of the 1st year of high school, held on 22/09/2016, in which a simulated hearing was simulated, in which the accused and subsequently convicted character had committed an crime related to homophobia.
In any case, we recognize that an undesirable interpretation was given to the episode, which is why we apologize to everyone involved and inform that the cross-cutting themes will continue to be worked on and debated in the broadest way possible.
Cordially,
The direction.
