(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring future alums, appeared in the Eastside Messenger on April 25, 2005.)

Bexley's "The Laramie Project" a call for safer world for all 

By John Matuszak
Eastside Editor 

Bexley, Ohio can seem a long way from Laramie, Wyoming, and the horrific crime that focused national attention on the small community in 1998.

An upcoming production of "The Laramie Project," a drama culled from interviews with residents following the beating death of a gay man, Matthew Shepard, has students and educators contemplating that distance and asking how to make their own world safer for everyone.

"The message is not homosexuality. It's safe schools," Bexley High Principal John Kellogg told a group of teachers gathered to hear a presentation on the play, to be staged April 28-30.

J. Scott Holsclaw, directing the production, agreed that the goal is to create an emotionally safer school, because if someone is calling you a name, you're not feeling safe."

The multiple roles in the play, created by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater group, provided an acting challenge to Holsclaw's advanced theater students.

The director, in his first year with Bexley Schools, also chose the play as a way "to teach tolerance of people who are different, and to educate people about how the seeds of hate are planted. It can be something as simple as calling someone a name."

How safe are Bexley Schools and how are students treating each other?

According to the Primary Prevention Awareness, Attitude and Use Survey, the majority of Bexley students feel safe at school. Two-thirds of middle school students and nearly half of high school students believe that the kids care about each other. More than 80 percent feel teachers treat students with respect.

But the survey also reveals a darker side to daily life at school. And testimony from students depicts abusive treatment among peers particularly those perceived or labeled as gay.

Forty-three percent  of students in grades six  through eight, and thirty-three percent of high schoolers, reported being verbally attacked. Seventeen percent of middle school students said they had been physically attacked at school and feared for their safety.

The teachers were read letters written anonymously by students, parents and fellow educators.

One sixth grader reported being called "gay , fag or stupid" and having his coat, left on the playground, covered with spit by classmates.

He never wore the coat again, the mother related.

One high school student recounted being called "gay, homo, fag, druggie, freak" because he spoke his mind about gay and women's rights and against the Iraq war.

Another told of hearing taunts of "here comes homo" and being told he was going to hell.

For this student, the doorway from the relatively safe classroom to the hallway represented "the gravestone of self-esteem."

Kellogg acknowledged that getting from one class to another can be an ordeal. "The rooms are safe, it's the hallways where things are going on."

Disagreements can escalate into violence. Last year, a fight broke out as students put up rainbow stickers urging a no vote on the state's proposed ban on gay marriage, the principal said.

Even teachers can feel the pressure to keep their sexual identities a secret, "not a comfortable way to live," wrote one former Bexley teacher who stayed in the closet with colleagues for a long time.

Whether the play has an impact on the larger school community, it has had an effect on the student thespians, Holsclaw said.

Student Tom Gardner said he was a devout Catholic and did not agree with the gay lifestyle. But through his involvement with "The Laramie Project," Gardner has resolved never to use derogatory terms about homosexuals.

Holsclaw had his actors write about how the play has affected them, and the pieces will be included in an epilogue to the play.

Along with mastering numerous characterizations, the students researched hate crimes, censorship and protests to previous productions of "The Laramie Project."

Two years ago, a staging at Otterbein University drew angry reactions from area churches, according to Holsclaw.

The monologues are based on interviews with residents of Laramie who knew Matt Shepard or were involved with the aftermath of his beating death.

Shepard, a 21-year-old college student, was seen leaving a bar with two men, who beat and robbed him and left him tied to a fence in freezing temperatures for 18 hours before he was found. He lingered in a coma before dying of his injuries.

The Tectonic Theater group conducted more than 200 interviews with townspeople, including the sheriff's deputy who found Shepard, the limousine driver who took him to a gay bar in a neighboring state; family and friends of the victim and friends of the assailants, as well as the attackers themselves, who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

The language is often raw. Holsclaw said the school board has been supportive of the production, and he had to make few cuts from the script.

Kellogg expects the play will resonate with students in his school.

"I guarantee you within a week of "The Laramie Project" kids will ask for a gay and lesbian club," a request Kellogg said he will be obligated to fulfill as long as the have an adult sponsor.

Kellogg also warned educators that they might see an increase in anti-gay behavior following the play. He asked teachers to foster a supportive tone in their classrooms, and not to tolerate derogatory comments.

The fact that many students are recognizing their own homosexuality comes as no surprise to teachers. When asked whether they knew a student who was gay, a large number raised their hands.

Jim Ryan, with the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Consortium, urged educators to offer a safe haven for students.

"Let the  be who they are," Ryan asked.

"The Laramie Project" will be presented May 28, 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Bexley High School's Studio Theater, on the second floor of the arts wing. Tickets are $5 and are available at the door or by calling 231-7611, ext. 311.

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