School district denies MTV

Suzie Harrison

The generation-old video channel mantra “I want my MTV” was shoved

out the window by parents and school officials this week.

The Laguna Beach School District Board of Education voted

unanimously Wednesday to “unwind” its plans with MTV for a reality

show about some of its students.

At a packed special meeting, angry parents wanted their turn to

express their opinions -- especially in the light of the

controversial MTV-produced Super Bowl half-time show that had tongues

wagging in disdain.

Parent Patsy Mars had issues with MTV’s plans that went beyond the

latest hot topic.

“Only six students are being selected,” she said. “How can it be a

good opportunity for the school?

“MTV exploits the youth in high school” Mars said. “I don’t feel

our children are for sale. Too bad we’re coming here having to debate

it. I don’t think it has anything to do with education.”

Board member Robert Whalen said that at the meeting on Jan. 27,

the board met to draft an agreement with MTV to permit camera crews

to record a group of Laguna Beach High School students during school

on and around campus.

“We took a motion to approve a contract if language changes were

made,” Whalen said. “Since that point in time, the contact was

redrafted, but some provisions weren’t changed .... We were concerned

that some of the changes we wanted still weren’t being addressed.”

The network was in the process of choosing about six students to

follow through the end of the semester, documenting their lives on

and off campus.

“For our school board to be involved in the community, we had the

right intentions,” Whalen said. “The district’s process of the

contract was for the protection of students.”

Board member Jan Vickers said the board backed off when the final

contracts indicated the district would have no way to protect the

students.

Ellen Bosworth said she was in favor of MTV filming, but as a

parent who saw a contract, she knew to be wary for her daughter.

“My daughter Lauren is one of the children selected,” Bosworth

said. “She heard about it, there was a lot of excitement, and Lauren

wanted to be a part of this. They gave us a contract, and the only

thing we had seen from the school is that the focus of the show was

to show Laguna Beach High School and the community in a good light.

We received the contract and said, ‘Oh my gosh! What are they asking

of our children?’”

She said that they hired an entertainment attorney to make sure

the kids would be protected.

“It’s disheartening to see that people don’t trust the parents

enough to protect their own children,” Bosworth said.

Marisa Reisman, 17, alternate student representative to the school

board, and student representative Dalton Combs, 17, were at the

meeting and were amazed at the reactions of some of the parents.

“We were made aware of it a long time ago. Everyone was talking

about it and excited about it in November,” Reisman said. “It was so

weird in the meeting that parents were saying that nobody knew.”

There would have been an independent contract with each selected

student, and MTV and the district would have separate contracts,

Whalen said.

“Looking at the developments over the last week, we felt it was

not prudent to proceed with the contract with MTV,” Whalen said. “We

thought the board would have significant input.”

He said initially it was supposed to be a positive thing.

“With the district in the intermediary role, it put us in a

difficult position to judge the content of a show every week,” Whalen

said.

He said that worry, coupled with the controversy over the Super

Bowl halftime show, made them feel fortunate that they hadn’t signed

a contract and didn’t have any binding agreement.

“We had no idea it could possibly prove to be a great distraction

from our main objective -- education,” board member Kathryn Turner

said. “We need to unwind the thing and to move on.”

The school board had tentatively approved a deal in which the

district was to receive a donation of up to $40,000 for college

scholarships plus royalties with no opponents last week.

“The attacks against the school board were unreasonable,” Reisman

said.

She said that without school board approval, MTV could still film,

but students wouldn’t have the protection of the district. It is

still unclear whether MTV will film around district participation.

Any filming would go on without scholarship funding for the schools.

MTV did not return phone calls by press time.

In classes on Thursday morning, Reisman said students were

discussing the meeting. Many thought the project would have been fun

and it was receiving a lot of support, she said. They seemed

surprised that the school board was attacked when they felt the board

had their best interests in mind, she said.

MTV originally told students that the show was going to be a

documentary, not a reality show, and as contract negotiations

continued, the board began to see things they were unhappy with,

Reisman said.

During their discussion in class, students said that the

controversy was ridiculous -- the accusations that the school board

was doing it for personal gain were off base, Reisman said.

“They’re volunteers. They don’t get paid. They’re not out there to

exploit us and sell us,” she said.