I am so pissed at the principal and asst principal at my school!!!!

The BBQ Pit
41

That’s a bummer your gf didn’t get to see your play. I’d be heartbroken too. (I missed my little sister’s play this year by a much larger margin and I still got kinda weepy over it)

This isn’t Broadway people, this is kids theatre. (Even if the kids take it very seriously, which I know my high school did) End of year scenes (not a play, not a big performance, but small scenes put together so that kids can show thier loved ones why they like theatre, anywhere from 2 min to 10.) are really neat and, at least in my school, relaxed affairs. No huge intermission/curtain business, and people were allowed to drift in and out between scenes an stand in the back rather than sit down. No ushers.

The school knew ahead of time that people would be coming in late. The kids performing wanted the late comers there and a ‘collection of scenes’ performance is disjointed enough taking thirty extra seconds between scenes will not disturb anyone. It would have been simple for the asst principal to figure out earlier in the day, or on the bus, who wanted to go see the performance and take them there, wait 2 minutes (or whatever) for the end of a scene and herd the kids to stand in the back.

Because s/he didn’t, and then lied about it, s/he destroyed something that can’t be replaced. Kids theatre is not valuble for the same reason professional theatre is. You can always get tickes to a professional show. You can never replace the sentimental experiance of seeing someone you love on stage.

Its like any other performance-type thing that you see for sentimental reasons. You don’t go to your child’s soccer game for the game, you go to see your kid play. You would be well pissed if you got to the field and were told to go home because you are not allowed to disturb the players. Your kid wants/needs you there. Similarly, Clayton’s gf wanted/needed to be in the audiance to see him perform. Its special.

And the principals were pricks. Unethical lying pricks.

Clayton, I’d write a letter to them saying how hurt you and your girlfriend are that they felt lying to you was appropriate professional behavior. Be very, very polite in it, but put the points you have stated here. (the performance had many breaks, and three after the time the asst principal stated, the theatre people were planning for late arrivals, etc.) Do not get angry, but just say how disappointed you are in their leadership in this instance. Being calm and right (and you are right, they shouldn’t have lied to you.) is your strength here. Then ask for an apology to your gf. If your parents are willing to back you up on this have them sign it too.

42

My GOD you people!

grienspace, it’s obvious you haven’t really read the thread, as it has already been established that it was not a play per se, but a collection of scenes.

And some people cry more easily than others. I would certianly cry if I missed a performance by my boyfriend. I take interest in what he does, and if he’s been working hard on something, I want to be there to share it with him. He comes to see my shows, I see his. I almost didn’t get a ticket for one of his shows, and damn right I would have been upset. And Monty, if you call either me or my boyfriend a “jerk” because of this, you’re an idiot.

milroyj, it amuses me that you feel it’s necessary to give veiled accusations of clayton_e trolling, being a bored schoolkid with nothing else to do but come bug us. Especially as he’s around all the time, has attended dopefests and is obviously not a troll just popping in to say hi.

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I did no such thing. It amuses me that you would accuse me of calling someone a troll, when I clearly did not.

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clay, but what if a train leaving Plattsburgh left at 1:50 heading towards Burlington traveling at 45 miles per hour, and another left going the opposite direction at 2:10…

:smiley:

But seriously, if it makes you feel any better, somehow I doubt the principle and vp were conspiring to lie to you. I imagine the vp made a judgment call about letting you in, just told you some relatively-accurate-but-not-quite story about it, then just mentioned it to the principle. I doubt the vp said, "hey, I made up this story for Clay, let me tell you so we can get our facts straight. More like, “hey, so you know, Clay was upset because his gf didn’t get to see the play, here’s why,” and the principle took the story at face value.

Not to invalidate your frustration, just trying to paint the authority figures in a more forgiving light.

45

I suggest you reread the OP

Most plays are a collection of scenes are they not? Are you suggesting that what we have here are merely a series of unrelated skits?

I might also suggest that it appears the performance was running behind schedule, and to avoid waiting buses etc after 2:10, that any further delays had to be avoided.

46

Okay, grienspace, try this:

**

Better?

Now, milroyj, I admit I was a little hasty. But I would love to hear what you did mean by:

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Because we all know that anyone with an age ending in -teen couldn’t possibly have a valid opinion or complaint about anything. I mean, they’re not even really people yet. Fuck em. Right, milroyj? :rolleyes:

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Medea’s Child wrote:

Why, that’s ridiculous! All of it.

First of all, your first sentence exulpates the principal and vice-principal. It implies that they wanted to help, contrary to Clayton_e’s implication that they had conspired together for the sole purpose of lying.

Second, it has already been shown that it is nearly impossible to seat those people inside five minutes, let alone one-and-a-half.

Third, it has also been established that people could have seen at most one scene (the final one), IF it can be assumed that the whole process would proceed with order and efficiency of the kind not to be found in the real world.

And finally, even after saying that this wasn’t Broadway, you still thought that the vice-principal should spend his day fretting over this detail of the event, even running out to the bus to begin a triage as people debark! :smiley:

Come on, for cryin’ out loud. If this was that important to those people, why didn’t they go ahead and pre-divide themselves and make every effort to get in as fast as possible? And why wasn’t the girlfriend poised in front of the bus doors, ready to sprint inside the building the moment the bus came to a complete stop?

Criminey.

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Get off it, LaurAnge. Libertarian already proved the situation posited in the OP is bogus. At any rate, both of them are presumably old enough to understand the concept of schedule conflict.

50

I was out for a while, sorry I didn’t post for some time.
I’ll try to keep from swearing much, as that seems to just degrade the post.
ladyfoxfyre, Thank you. You summed it up quite well.

MGibson, take a look at laurAnge’s post where she mentions how some things like this are important to the SOs of those on stage. I don’t think I’m telling you something that’s a HUGE surprise, people care about the things their SO do. And please don’t come in here to toss in a comment that isn’t really about what we’re talking about. You’re as off as Lib the technical error guy who probably has a timeline of those 30 minutes on the wall, only you’re going in the opposite direction.

Monty, I’m really sorry you misread the reason that she cried. I’m sorry, I must not have been descriptive enough, because the last thing I’d ever want anyone to think is that I’m abusive (as I look back I see I could have reworded my OP to keep that confusion from happening, sorry). She cried because it meant a lot for her to be there and see me. She was sad because she couldn’t see the play, not because of anything I said. I was trying to comfort her, not to harm her. And thank you Taran, for keeping that possibility out of anybody’s mind by explaining Monty’s error.

MsRobyn, as Medea’s Child pointed out (and I was thinking this exact thing after the play) THIS ISN’T BROADWAY.

And I’ll add: There were no ushers, only the school vice principal, there isn’t a guy to open the limosine doors at the parking lot, there isn’t someone who’s job it is to go around and tell people they can’t use cameras as it hurts how people view the play… IT’S SPEACH AND THEATER!!! And, MsRobyn, I believe by what you said in your post that you were under the impression that the end of school bell was right at (or just before) the end of the play. We went on for several more minutes through the last act.

Hehe, thank you Eonwe, I’d have to say my answer is (d), both conductors don’t care when they pass, as long as they get paid on friday.
And I will take that into consideration, that the principal was not part of comming up with the lie, although she was rather earnest to come find us when she found out we were around to tell us why she wasn’t allowed in. But you’re probably right, she was probably under the impression that the vp’s idea was right and she wanted to tell us just to smoothe things over. I won’t really focus on her when I bring this up on Monday.

And milroyj, if you arn’t going to say something constructive just get out.

Thank you for defending my character, LaurAnge.

grienspace, I said “play” because it’s easier to type out that than “arrangement of short scenes in a specific order”. And thank you again, LaurAnge, this time for pointing out how it was made up of many short scenes. And the bus thing you mention, sorry I didn’t mention that buses don’t arrive until at least 2:40. (Scribble scribble as [lib] pens it in on the timeline)

And thanks, B.pants.

51

Argh… I see Monty chimed in while I was writing.

You say:

Ok, Hold it here… Your first post is simply one that is obviously made before you read more than a paragraph of the post. You accuse me of abuse and I apologize as I thought I hadn’t been clear enough. But this post of yours changes my mind… Maybe you simply did it to try to tarnish my character.

But this attempt to bring up the topic which I’d assume everyone else in this post gave up (let me count) some 35 posts ago, that I made this whole thing up is really over the top. I see you only come in to try to instigate a problem. Your first post says I’m abusive, your second says I made it up. Both of which are total bullshit. Please, if you would so kindly point out the great conspiracy that I am trying to pull and what I could gain from it?
I’d like that done in detail.

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To repeat, I don’t think anyone believes you made anything up. I don’t think you are lying. I just think that you are viewing the situation myopically.

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Which is what I meant by “bogus.” I don’t think the P & VP lied.

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BTW, clayton: NOWHERE did I say you were abusive. That you read that into what I actually did say just goes to show you that you very well might be mistaken also in what happened at the play.

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Clayton, can you see from this what it feels like to be accused of lying when you are not? Please consider that the principal and assistant principal may have had a few other things on their minds. (It’s not as easy as it looks.) I doubt that they lied. What reason would they have for lying when any reason they had would have been something that you would have had to live with – like it or not. It sounds like bad timing and misunderstandings to me.

Theater arts teachers make it a point to abide by the established traditions and courtesies of theater. It’s part of the teaching process. They might want to focus next on teaching you how to spell the name of the class you are taking. (" IT’S SPEACH AND THEATER!!! ") Don’t be too embarrassed. I once told someone that I was a “teach speacher.”

I do remember that such things can be really disappointing when you are a teenager. I doubt that the administrators involved had any idea how much distress this would cause you and your girlfriend. They have to make thousands of little decisions (literally!) in a day’s time. They were probably not as focused on what was happening as your girlfriend was. They may have forgotten about bringing the students in and they might not have realized that a couple of breaks did provide a little bit of an opportunity. They might not have realized how long the breaks were going to be. They made a judgment call about whether there was time enough to go to the classrom, get the students out the door and down the hall and into the theater. I think the assistant principal made a reasonable decision.

But I am sorry that you are angry and your girlfriend is hurt.:smack:

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I’m sorry. That slap on my head was supposed to be after my “teach speacher” remark. No insult intended.

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Thank you Zoe, and it’s k about the smack smilie (heh).

And on a not as great note:

Then please enlighten me on what this means:

58

No, I agree that it seems more likely that the principal and vp were… careless rather than malicious.

But it has just astounded me how some people have been acting in this thread.

59

LaurAnge, I didn’t expect it either. This was more of a headache than it was worth. Oh well, I’ll just keep in mind that the pit blows, no matter what side of the conversation I’m on.

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LaurAnge wrote:

Me too.