Theater Assignment Leads to Teacher's Suspension

News coming out of Texas today that a theatre teacher has been suspended following reports of a controversial assignment where a mass shooting would be staged using puppets.

Hays CISD told local news that the Johnson High School theater arts teacher is a long-term substitute and that they’ve been suspended pending an investigation by the campus.

The district said in a statement that, “Students report that the substitute assigned them to perform a puppet show in which at least one puppet had to be murdered. Additionally, one group of students reports that their performance would have involved a mass shooting, though it is not clear if that was the specific assignment or a scene created to meet the parameters of the assignment.”

Hays CISD said if this happened, assigning or allowing this type of performance would be disturbing and unacceptable conduct.

According to local news, the assignment was to do a puppet show, where at least one puppet had to be murdered. One group was planning to recreate a mass shooting using their puppets.

“Allegedly the group was told if they did not do the assignment, they would get a zero. Once again, the school district is trying to figure out if the kids were forced to do a school shooting puppet show or if the teacher was unaware of what the students were doing beforehand. One student in the class said once the group performed, the teacher told them it wasn't violent enough.”

Parents in the district are outraged. One parent stated,

"She called me telling me that their theater teacher was telling them that they were gonna have to reenact a violent school shooting, where they had to actually pretend to die,” the parent said. “You don’t have students, 16 year-old, 17 year-old students reenact something that they’re truly afraid of.”

This is a developing story and more information will be added as it becomes available.