February 13, 2008
The Silent Scream Screened at Milpitas Middle School
The Palme d'Or-robbed gem The Silent Scream landed a confused and sick Milpitas' Russell Middle School teacher in the fiery hot waters of bureaucratic hell after he recently screened this anti-abortion film in his chemistry class. According to CBS 5:
The film was shown on January 23, after students in all five of Randy Yang's chemistry classes finished taking a test. The first year teacher reportedly asked his students if they wanted to watch a film about the water cycle, or on abortion. All five classes chose the abortion video.
Charming. What this pro-life documentary, which shows a fetus allegedly screaming ever so quietly as it's being terminated, has to do with the fusion of baking soda and vinegar is beyond us. Anyway, this trumps our middle school social studies teacher who screened Helter Skelter during a shattering third period class many, many years ago.
| 
Advertisement: SFist Continues Below!
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
No matter how pro-choice you are, you have to admit that an abortion can be an awfully messy, unpleasant affair; and I don't see any benefit in concealing that fact from high school students. Except, d'oh, why was it in a chemistry class? .
Teachers are always being told to watch for "teachable moments," but this is one lesson that maybe should have been saved for some other time and place.
you make a good point. i could see it being shown in health class or sex ed. it is, after all, a serious procedure.
Um, so did the makers of this anti-abortion video, presumably themselves anti-abortion, pay and/or solicit a woman to have an abortion?
And who gets the royalties?
Wow.
All we got was the Franco Zeffirelli "Romeo and Juliet" without the topless scene (and that was in Georgia.)
Wow, and the parents in my hometown went apeshit when our stoner English teacher showed Pink Floyd's The Wall.
Hey, guess what? A hip replacement is also an awfully messy, unpleasant affair.
Did Rachel Carson direct?
mattymatt - your comment really upsets me.
perhaps if the film were an unbiased look at what an abortion actually is (the removal of a fetus from a woman's uterus), you could potentially make the argument that it could be shown to high school students. but the film is TOTALLY anti-choice biased. the doctor states "we are going to watch a child being torn apart by the unfeeling instruments of the abortion." and what is the point of showing an abortion procedure except to make little anti-choice robots out of high school students? as manys points out, it's not like they show other painful, bloody surgeries to high school students.
"abortion" = "abortionist"
sorry.
When I was a senior in high school I had an American Political Systems (ie, Americna Gov't) teacher Mr. Hangar at Thousand Oaks High School who decided it was appropriate to show us the Christian Coalition's video titled "The Homosexual Agenda" (this was INSTEAD of playing video tapes of the Rush Limbaugh TV show.)
This video portrayed homosexuals as perverts, child molesters, and even went so far as to describe the bacterial disease a person can get from sex acts like felching and snow balling.
It was beyond the pale. And for me, just coming to terms completely with my sexuality it was a really low blow.
I don't know what sort of adult thinks it is okay to show a class full of teenagers, some of whom are gay, a video on how EVIL a certain part of our population supposedly is. To me this man soiled his entire career with such a despicable act.
@ generati.
heh! at a public school no less...mighta expected it from la reina, but t.o. high?? egads!