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.
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