SOP for handling inappropriate content in educational settings.

[FED]

I work as a technician for my former high school as a theatre tech. I graduated in 2012, but decided to work before going to college. I am officially a staff member, but not well versed on a number of SOPs, either because those SOPs do not exist or there hasn't been time for the admin to brief and revise with the staff on a regular basis.

Last night I found myself in a situation where a student band performed an inappropriate song in the school talent show.

The event was hosted by the school's Tri-M chapter and was fully student run. I was technically the only 'adult' supervising the show. All songs were pre-approved by the student organizers and performers have respected the process over the years, so there hasn't been much worry about anyone making a stunt on stage. It's tradition to end the show with some heavy tunes and the band in question was allowed to perform two songs (being one of the more popular bands in school). They played both songs during the rehearsal without much problem. But when it came to the actual show, they performed the first song as planned, then started the second song with the lead saying "This next song is going to piss off a lot of people tonight," and went on to play a different song with direct references to weed and ecstasy. (I didn't catch the name of the song.)

Call me uncultured, but I wasn't familiar with the song; and the singer wasn't that good of a singer, so the lyrics were inaudible to my ears. I almost sat through the whole thing not knowing what was happening. Apparently the Tri-M president was demanding everyone to shut down the show over the comms, telling the crew to interrupt the show while coaxing the emcees to step on stage and stop the band (I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that the emcees were in on it with the band). No one knew how to interrupt the show and was just panicking about what to do over the comms. I on the other hand couldn't hear anything over the comms in the booth because the band was loud and both my light and sound techs were off headset (I stupidly dismissed the noise from my can as just chatter because the crew wouldn't stop chatting the whole duration of the show). They were two-thirds into the song before I realized what was happening, and then I proceeded to panic myself. Shortly after the emcees finally went out, stopped the band (who didn't look surprised) and ended the show.

The band was reinforced with amps on stage; so there wasn't a possibility of shutting off their sound, aside from the lead singer's mic. Though I could have easily walked over to the power DB and tripped the power outlets on the stage.

It bugs me that it went on for so long. What really bugs me is how there wasn't an administrator in charge to oversee the event. (This happens quite often for small events.) Even-though it was a student run event, there still should be faculty/admin making sure things go right. There were some teachers seated near the booth, one of them was the Tri-M faculty sponsor, but no one took the initiative to shut it down. I talked to one of them, and she just shrugged and wondered why no one stopped it earlier.

This is probably one of my biggest screw-ups (mainly due to my own ignorance). Any thoughts?

 

[lwinters630]

First I would have a talk with your principal to understand the school rules, chain of responsibility, and your role -responsibility in this situation. I would also ask why the club sponsor and an administrator was not present.

 

[Edrick]

I'm confused but didn't you say you are paid facility now to supervise these events. So aren't you the one who would be the administrative person in charge for the event?

 

[Footer]

Its in your space. Your the paid staff member. Your in charge of the kids. You should have pulled the plug and written up the kids involved for a the proper people to deal with the next day. If something smells wrong, stop it and deal with it.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[cpf]

But now that its done and over with, make sure to sit down with the concerned parties so you can be confident in the future - and so that they know you meant no wrong.

I've worked a few HS talent shows, but I've never had a situation like this - possibly because all the shows have been directly supervised by teachers of the performers.

I think a good strategy (if you're on your own) would be to attend rehearsals and make a few notes about the content of each act (theme, key lyrics/lines, whatever). Then during the show, pay attention to the crowd for any unrest and refer back to make sure things are lining up.

 

[techieman33]

You could have had the mic turned off, if the mic wasn't on the audience couldn't hear the lyrics. You could also have the lighting guy lower the lights, and even raise the house lights. When I was was in high school our student run talent shows never had a problem like this. We also had procedures in place to deal with problems like this though. The talent was informed that any deviation from the program would be punished starting with a one day suspension from school, and escalating from there depending on the severity of the incident. The stage manager, sound and light board ops all had instructions on what to do should something happen that wasn't approved or school appropriate. That way action could be taken immediately without needing the faculty adviser to get on com and decide what needed to be done. The student talent is a lot less likely to try and change things up that way since they know they will be punished, and things will get shutdown right away.

 

[TheaterEd]

For me, I am the HS Auditorium Manager, so I manage the facility. It is the event organizer's responsibility to manage the performers and the audience. You should help out as much as you can, but they should have been back stage making sure things were running smoothly and in a position to shut the bands down if this happened. If it was me, the moment the singer said they were probably going to piss people off, I would have shut them down and not given them the chance.

You live and you learn. From this point on, I think you need to make sure that there is a responsible adult in charge and calling the shots. If you (Like I usually am) are too busy keeping the show going to properly supervise and call the shots, then it is the responsibility of the renting group to provide that person.

 

[JChenault]

In understand why something went wrong, it is usually a number of things that caused the problem, not some single event. Lets do a quick failure analysis on this and see if we can see where the process was broken.

1 - What is "Inappropriate Conduct" and who decides? This one is actually tricky. The venue is owned by the school, and being hosted by a student organization. What is the schools policy on content for productions in their space? Do they have one and have they shared it with you? Who in the student organization decides what is inappropriate? From what you said, you did not know that the content was inappropriate because you did not know the song, and you could not understand the words.

2 - Communication breakdown. You said that you could not hear the student organizer asking to stop the show. ( its not clear to me where you were located. ) You need to have the ability to hear what is being said in any case over the headsets. Not sure what kind of equipment you have, but if you can't hear and understand what is going on you can't help.

3 - Communications discipline. You had dismissed the board op and follow spot because of chatter. A better solution would have been to work to impose better communications discipline on them. ( This would have been better for them as well ). For example - you might try 'Guys - I'm having trouble concentrating. Could you please cut the chatter'. Even if they were off com, you should have tried the call button and hope they see the light.

4 - You did not have the equivalent of a stage manager on the stage. If something goes wrong on the deck, you need someone who will be ready to respond. This could be to grab a fire extinguisher to put out a fire, get a bandage for the actor who ran into the box boom, go out and pull the scenery piece off stage when the mechanics failed, or unplug the amps and tell the audience that due to the request of the organizer this song has been stopped.

IMHO the last item ( #4) is the most serious problem ( assuming you were not on the deck. As I said I am unclear on that point ). You have to have someone backstage to take care of stuff that goes wrong. Period. If that person is not available then you have to step into that role. ( this person could be a responsible student as well).

#2 or #3 is probably the second issue I would address. If you can't communicate you can't control the problems. As the adult in the room that is a large part of your job.

And finally - just a personal thought as a child of the sixties. What is inappropriate anyway? Did he say words that these kids do not hear on the radio every day? Did he incite them to go and burn down the principals house or start a riot? For me inappropriate conduct is when someone has to go to the hospital ( or might have to based on what someone did ). Does not sound like that is the case here - especially if the venue or producers ( school or student group) has not defined it to you before the event.

 

[gafftaper]

I'm confused but didn't you say you are paid facility now to supervise these events. So aren't you the one who would be the administrative person in charge for the event?

Not in any of the theaters I've worked in. HS theater managers are typically there to run the facility make sure the building is safe and the tech is done the right way. If an act is unsafe, then it's my job to stop the show. If there's a content problem, it should be up to a teacher, club adviser, or administrator to make the call to stop the show. It sounds like there is a chain of command issue at your school. I would make it clear to all upcoming events that you will not unlock the theater until the teacher, club adviser, administrator in charge is there. I assume you are not certificated. Depending on your state laws, you are probably not approved to teach, supervise, or possibly even be alone in a room with students without someone with a certificate present. How can you be left in charge of a theater full of kids doing a talent show?

 

[TheaterEd]

Not in any of the theaters I've worked in. HS theater managers are typically there to run the facility make sure the building is safe and the tech is done the right way. If an act is unsafe, then it's my job to stop the show. If there's a content problem, it should be up to a teacher, club adviser, or administrator to make the call to stop the show. It sounds like there is a chain of command issue at your school. I would make it clear to all upcoming events that you will not unlock the theater until the teacher, club adviser, administrator in charge is there. I assume you are not certificated. Depending on your state laws, you are probably not approved to teach, supervise, or possibly even be alone in a room with students without someone with a certificate present. How can you be left in charge of a theater full of kids doing a talent show?

Quite often in Wisconsin extra-curricular activities are run by people without a teaching certificate. For example : Freshman soccer or JV Cross Country. He wouldn't be able to teach a class or anything, but he is an adult authorized by the school to work with children. This is in WI though, I have no idea what Malaysia requires. Also, he did state that the Tri-M Faculty Sponsor was there, and that afterwards they wondered what took so long to stop the act.

I agree with Gaff in that there should always be a faculty member in charge of the students present for any event or rehearsal. The theater manager is there to manage the tech and ensure safety, there needs to be someone there to be in charge of the students.

 

[cmckeeman]

I assume you are not certificated. Depending on your state laws, you are probably not approved to teach, supervise, or possibly even be alone in a room with students without someone with a certificate present.

At the school i work at they had me submit to a background check and that's what clears me to supervise students alone.

 

[gafftaper]

I believe every state now requires background checks of all school employees. If they don't they should! The question of if a non-certificated person can supervise students alone is a bit more murky and probably changes on a district by district basis. I've worked in 3 districts. I've been told in one that a certificated person must ALWAYS be in the room. In another, I don't think anyone would have cared if handed out weapons and told the class the last one standing can go home from school early.

But back to my real point... I run the theater. I am responsible for the safety of everyone in the theater, the building, and the proper use of equipment. Someone from the school is planning an event. That person should be responsible for supervising the event and approving the content of the event. If you want me to shut it down, fine. But it's your event so you make that call and you live with the consequences of your action/inaction. On the other hand, if someone wants to overload the theater beyond safe capacity, starts playing with pyro, damaging sound equipment, etc... I'm shutting it all down and I don't care what the user thinks about it. That's my responsibility.

 

[StradivariusBone]

I believe every state now requires background checks of all school employees. If they don't they should!

Many states have adopted their own version of the Lundsford Act which requires everyone, even volunteers and the guy who restocks the soda machine, to be fingerprinted and screened. It's a big deal in Florida and the penalties for messing it up are pretty high. It's not a federal law, they never got it passed, but I think 40+ states have a similar measure at this point.

 

[TheaterEd]

I've never been fingerprinted here in WI, but I know that all of our staff, volunteers, chaperons, coaches, etc. have to have background checks.

 

[StradivariusBone]

Each county has their own fingerprinting process even though it all goes through the same FBI database and they all charge a fee. For volunteers, it's somewhat of a discouragement in getting people to sign up to help and then charging them $70 for their troubles. That being said, I think it's important that we are aware who is working around children.

 

[gafftaper]

I've never been fingerprinted here in WI, but I know that all of our staff, volunteers, chaperons, coaches, etc. have to have background checks.

They will get to you eventually. There was a while here where all the new people were getting fingerprinted but the people who had been around a while had not been. Then they finally got around to going back and doing all the old employees too.

Each county has their own fingerprinting process even though it all goes through the same FBI database and they all charge a fee. For volunteers, it's somewhat of a discouragement in getting people to sign up to help and then charging them $70 for their troubles. That being said, I think it's important that we are aware who is working around children.

I've been printed multiple times in multiple districts for different jobs. Sometimes they have asked me to pay sometimes not. When I first got my teaching certification there was actually a state patrol officer who came to the University and did our prints as part of the process of getting certified. Once I had to go to the local police station and pay them $25 to do my prints. In the district I now work at, it's in the HR office and they just do it for everyone as part of getting your ID badge and signing your new employee paperwork.

The lack of organization and the lack of a common database is actually a little disturbing. It appears to me that they take your prints, run the check, then throw them away. There doesn't appear to be any ongoing checking once you are hired.

 

[josh88]

Now that I'm working for the school I don't have to get checked again, but back when I was just going to the police to get checked, the sheet they gave me was good for a year, and went through the FBI database. So if I started somewhere who wanted me checked I'd be ok anywhere as long as it was within the year, I just had to copy the paper that said I was clean. Everywhere that has my prints (the YMCA) hasn't asked me to be printed again even if it's been longer than that.


Via tapatalk

 

[StradivariusBone]

The lack of organization and the lack of a common database is actually a little disturbing. It appears to me that they take your prints, run the check, then throw them away. There doesn't appear to be any ongoing checking once you are hired.

I had to get re-fingerprinted a year or two ago when I was still teaching band. For employees here it's at no cost and I'm not sure what the frequency is. The larger problem with this system not being a nationally structured entity is let's say you do something stupid as a teacher in Utah and get fired. You drive over to Tennessee (I'm picking states at random, no offense meant). Your records may not show up on the database and unless your stupidity is Google-worthy you might not get flagged, and even then that's only if the admin thinks to check Google.

 

[zmb]

I've been printed multiple times in multiple districts for different jobs. Sometimes they have asked me to pay sometimes not. When I first got my teaching certification there was actually a state patrol officer who came to the University and did our prints as part of the process of getting certified. Once I had to go to the local police station and pay them $25 to do my prints. In the district I now work at, it's in the HR office and they just do it for everyone as part of getting your ID badge and signing your new employee paperwork.

I had to get it done as part of my job before I could receive an ID, key fob, and keys. I had to pay $10 to the local sheriff to take the prints, which were done electronically but were submitted to the state superintendent on paper and get a a cashier's check that went on to the state. Oddly, just turning the stuff into the district HR was enough for it to count as completed. Must be trusting that we don't have any past we're trying to hide.

State Parks also required fingerprinting too for volunteers that handle cash. Isn't clear if being vetted by the state superintendent is also valid for the parks.

 

[gafftaper]

State Parks also required fingerprinting too for volunteers that handle cash. Isn't clear if being vetted by the state superintendent is also valid for the parks.

Here in washington there is no database the information gets put into. They run your prints, check the results, and check off that box in your HR department. No one at the state keeps any records. I've gotten printed for different jobs in the same district.