Wednesday, November 26, 2008
WHAT THE F@#&ING HELL?!
Backstage at BackstageJobs.com: "As has been reported here previously, Tucker Thayer was a 15 year old high school student in Utah. He died November 15th after a .38 loaded with a blank discharged close to his head, apparently by his own hand (accidentally). The school administration claimed that they had never seen the gun, but they had still allowed it’s use in the production"
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13 comments:
I am so glad that this commentary was done. I feel as though most people are blaming the kid for playing with the gun and asking how he got his hands on it. I've never heard of a high school who would approve a gun to be used without seeing the actual prop, nor one that would condone real guns in this day in age. My highschool wasn't even allowed to do Urinetown, just because of the title of the show. Most schools are very cognisant of their image, and the saftey of their students. I was and still am shocked that no one questioned the used of an ACTUAL gun in the production, on stage or off. Why couldnt they just use a sound effect like the professionals?
The title sums up my reaction to this. There's so much gross negligence going on here, I can't even begin to start.
Who the hell would use a REAL FIREARM in a production? Anyone? Really? They couldn't use a sound effect? The gun isn't even seen onstage. So many people at that school should not have a job right now. Poor kid had no idea how powerful that gun was..
I agree with this article completely. There is NO WAY you would ever have to shoot a live firearm onstage, ESPECIALLY in a educational setting. These were just kids, we didn't even let kids use pneumatic nail or staple guns, let alone ever considering using a firearm. Its just lazy and stupid to use an effect like that, where you could get a designer to creatively figure out how to make that sound. This commentary was definitely necessary, it shed light on the situation that others might have not seen before.
What an unfortunate event. I feel so bad for this poor kid who was given a responsibility he didn't even understand the danger of before it took his life. This is why there are so many regulations about guns on stage and the reason why we need to enforce them. I don't understand how a high school would approve of a gun on stage even if it was in the possession of a parent at all times. There are so many ways that this could have been prevented or done safely even if they did decide to use a real gun.
I don't think you should make the blanket statement that you should never use a firearm in an educational setting, but you do need to take proper precautions. We had a rule in high school, that if we wanted to try something new we had to get in contact with someone in the city who actually new about it and bring them down to the school.
Not only was negligence had with respect to Thayer, but arrogance too. I hope the administration is suspended, at minimum.
Yes what happened was wrong, and yes there were a lot of administrative problems but calm down. Yes a kid is dead but it is simply the fault of the Theatre teacher (s) and the parent. Dangerous and sometimes illegal things are done in theatre all the time but I think that when you are putting a real gun onstage you should take some extra precautions. The administrative board should not have let the show have a real gun since it is after all a high school show.
The article did a really good job of hurting my brain. I mean, what the hell, if the school goes on lock down for a rifle prop, who would even think bringing a real gun to the school would be a good idea? I've never heard of a high school that was ok with live anything that made a realistic gun sound in any production of theirs, for I believe reasons exactly like this. Like I said, the idea that idiocy this potent exists in this world.
This whole incident is just sad. I can't believe a school would allow a real gun but have a lock down for a prop rifle. I hope the school figures something out to make sure this doesn't happen again!
There is no way a high school should ever allow a real weapon on its campus. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Sure, it was supposed to be in the possession of a parent at all times, but look how well that worked. Especially with all the school shootings in the past 10 years, I can't understand why a school would even think about allowing a real gun on campus. Inexcusable.
There is a need for high schools to realize how serious some effects can be and how they can be life-threatening. We had a GAM torch in one of our shows and someone thought it would be cool to play with it backstage before rehearsal. They didn't know how to load the torch, that they shouldn't have been touching, so when they were playing with it, they almost set fire to some muslin which in turn would have started a large fire onstage. luckily not much happened and someone quickly reacted and put it out with a fire extinguisher. Accidents like this and the gun need to be prevented.
How unfortunate that gun control and high school theatre have intersected in this way.
I think that it is easy to say that guns shouldn't be portrayed on high school stages but what really should be considered as many others have pointed out, is that a functioning firearm does not belong anywhere near school grounds. What should be done be pursued is the idea of a prop-gun that isn't powder-actuated but that achieves the same sound. A completely safe prop that is capable of emanating the same type of sound that is expected from a handgun would be an extremely valuable item to the theatre industry.
This is the most absurd, preventable accident. The adults in the situation, school, school board and parents need to step up and take responsibility. From everything I have read relating to this incident, the student was a responsible kid. This leads me to believe this was an accident and not a suicide or kids being stupid.
The adults are all trying to blame each other. I am sure, even in a High School the theater teacher / director knows something about stage guns. And if the school was shut down for a sighting of wooden riffles, what is a real hand gun doing in the school.
So many questions that should not have to be asked. These people should be prosecuted under negligence laws.
Yes it was complete negligence. See above comments. However the thing that bothers me was the lack of respect held for said weapon. The lack of respect for the "toy" in the show seem to bring the doom and gloom into this. My highschool has a great program with student directors and all that, and we did have a gun onstage for one show. It was a starter pistol on loan that was treated with reverence to the point where no one would go near it. I remember a few students doing the standard "It's just a starter pistol" but it was rammed into ours heads that a pistol is a pistol and a weapon is a weapon, no matter size or shape etc. It will still ruin your day.
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