Parents sue school district after daughter is forced to perform 'pornographic monologue' in theatre class

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

According to Candra and Terrell Evans, their 15-year-old daughter had to perform a sexually explicit monologue before her theatre class in an assignment from teacher Kelly Hawes at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. The piece was written by another student and comprised of a lesbian character telling an ex-boyfriend that she didn't like his 'd**k' or having sex with him.

The family filed the $50,000 lawsuit against the Clark County School District and its superintendent, Dr. Jesus Jara.

They allege that last March their daughter's theater teacher, Kelly Hawes, told her students to write monologues which their classmates would then memorize and read aloud before the class.

The monologue the 15-year-old performed involved a woman telling her ex-boyfriend that she was a lesbian, describing how she never liked his penis or having sex with him, and that she'd begun sleeping with a college roommate. In addition to reading the monologue aloud, the girl was made to act it out in front of the class.

According to the lawsuit, the monologue the Evans' daughter was made to read was as follows:

'I don't love you. It's not you, it's just (looks down) your d***. I don't like your d*** or any d*** in that case. I cheated Joe. We were long distance and I'm in college and me and this girl, my roommate, started having some drinks and you know, I thought it was a one-time thing but then we started going out for coffee, and started sleeping in the same bed.'

'I never thought it would get this far but God, it was like fireworks, and made me realize that with you it was always like a pencil sharpener that keeps getting jammed. I've tried to look at it from all different perspectives, but the truth is, I'm a f***** lesbian. I'll never love you or any man, or any f****** d***.

'I hope you find a nice straight girl because that's not me, and I'm tired of pretending that it is.'

The Evans learned of the assignment a month after it was performed and raised concerns about it with school administrators. An administrator then told her the school district would handle the issue. Apparently, they did not.

At a school board meeting, Ms. Evans tried reading the monologue aloud but was silenced by the school board over its obscenity rules.

So here’s my take. While I think parents need to understand that, especially at a theatre school, students are going to be asked to participate in more advanced training with possibly more mature themes. This sounds exactly like one of those exercises. At the same time, I understand where the parents are coming from; 15 years old seems young to have to perform that type of material.

As someone who traveled the country watching college BFA auditions, there were plenty of times when I thought some high school students performed way too explicit material. And when that happens, it falls on the teacher to use a good sense of judgment on when to pull a student back from performing such material or not to select it for them. It doesn’t look like that happened here.

I’m unsure of why the family is suing the school district, but then again, we do live in a very litigious country where people will sue for anything these days.