School District Cancels High School Play After Obscenity Complaints

Ross Winn, a Santa Rosa High School junior (left) as Charlie Brown and Cynthia Richards, also a junior, as Van's sister during dress rehearsals for the ArtQuest performance of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. (Dean Jahnsen)

News is coming out of California where a school district has canceled the remaining performances of a high school theatre production at Santa Rose High School after they received complaints that the show contained obscene material. The play in question is Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead by Bert V. Royal.

According to local news, officials pulled the plug on the show after opening night’s performance after complaints were made. District officials would not say who complained. The students were notified Friday morning that they could not stage their next three scheduled shows.

The play, a modern reimagining of the beloved Peanuts characters as teenagers facing real-world issues, had been chosen to spark meaningful discussions about mental health, bullying, and self-acceptance.

The complaints deemed the material "obscene" and "offensive," citing its candid portrayal of sensitive topics like sexuality, substance abuse, and mental health struggles.

The cancellation sparked a heated debate across the district, with many arguing that the decision was an act of censorship that denied students the opportunity to explore difficult conversations through art.

“We’ve never had a problem with profanity — censoring the arts is unfair,” said ArtQuest Theatre Company President Dean Jahnsen, a senior at SRHS told local news. “Here at ArtQuest … we’re all about self-expression. It kills us to hear this.”

Santa Rosa City Schools public information officer James Hodgman said the district is investigating the approval process for the play. It’s important to note that Elsie Allen High School, also in the Santa Rosa City Schools district, did the same play and script in 2020. They performed their rendition at the Lenaea High School Theatre Festival competition and won second place.

District officials told students they might consider allowing the students to perform the final two shows when school returns after the holidays if they censor the material. Of course, that couldn’t be done without the permission of the playwright.

According to reports, a local theatre, The Mercury Theatre, will be hosting the final student performances.

In my opinion, the decision by the school district is both disappointing and alarming. Yes, the show is a bit more mature than your standard high school theatre. But its raw, unapologetic exploration of issues like mental health, bullying, sexuality, and the struggles of self-acceptance is precisely why it resonates so profoundly with young audiences. To cancel this production is to send a troubling message: that these vital, real-life experiences are too taboo to be explored within an educational setting.

Censorship of this kind does not protect students—it only hinders their ability to critically engage with the world around them. Sheltering young people from uncomfortable topics does not make those topics disappear; it simply leaves them ill-prepared to handle them. Rather than sweeping these discussions under the rug, schools should empower students to confront them head-on, in a supportive and guided environment.

It is imperative that educational institutions trust their students to engage with challenging material and recognize the value of theater as a tool for learning, growth, and empathy.

UPDATE: (11/17/24) - “Following the uproar over their decision to cancel Santa Rosa High School’s production of “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead”, the school district is reversing course and allowing it to be staged at the school, but only for audiences 16 and older.”