MSBSD prepares all for success

The Mat-Su Borough School District has strong and absolute policies that outline anti-discrimination policy and practice. These policies address discrimination at all levels, including:

• BP 0410—the 0000 series addresses “Comprehensive Plans,” stating in part: “The School Board is committed to equal opportunity for all individuals in education. District programs and activities shall be free from discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, national origin, ethnic group, marital or parental status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, union affiliation, or any other unlawful consideration. The Board shall promote programs which ensure that discriminatory practices are eliminated in all district activities.”

• BP 5415.3—the 5000 series addresses “Students.” This policy states, in part: “District programs and activities shall be free from discrimination with respect to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, ethnicity, marital or parental status, and physical or mental disability.”

The Frontiersman published in print Tuesday, May 10, and online Monday, May 9, that Wasilla High School Principal Dwight Probasco had pulled the symphonic jazz choir piece “Bohemian Rhapsody” from the graduation program performance “simply because (songwriter Freddie) Mercury was gay.”

This report was inaccurate.

“Soon after the winter break, the issue of the choir performing the song came up,” said Mr. Probasco. “At an open forum parent meeting in January, more than one parent questioned the appropriateness of the lyrics of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ In January, I had a conversation with the music staff about the song and asked, ‘Is there some more appropriate song for graduation that can make everybody feel good? Make everyone feel happy to be at graduation?’”

When the spring concert came, the symphonic choir performed the song with altered lyrics, edited to remove lyrics including violence and killing. Mr. Probasco gave the choir permission to perform the song, with altered lyrics, at graduation.

The decision about whether to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” was based on two issues, neither of which had anything to do with the composer, performers, nor recording artists’ sexual orientation. The two issues were:

• Addressing parent concerns about the lyrics of the song (violence, including killing a man), and

• Addressing graduation decorum for the enjoyment of all students, parents and community members.

While graduation from high school is an event that can be a source of individual joy and celebration, the actual ceremony itself is a public celebration.

The Mat-Su Borough School District celebrates every graduation ceremony at its large comprehensive high schools, smaller K-12 schools, charter schools, home-school Mat-Su Central School and special mission schools. With pride in all our graduates, we join our parents and school communities in celebrating the diversity of culture, heritage, tradition, race, nationality, language and lifestyle in the Mat-Su Valley.

I appreciate the way Mr. Probasco has handled the matter. As principal, he has operated well within board policy and has listened to all constituent parents and their points of view, arriving at a compromise with which we hope the community is pleased. We want graduation this week to be an entire school and community celebration.

Kenneth Stephen Burnley is superintendent of the Mat-Su Borough School District.