Banning TKAM Play

I was extremely disappointed after reading the article emailed out regarding a high school canceling the play of To Kill a Mockingbird. When I was in high school, my school put on some pretty mature content plays: Absurd Person Singular and Tommy stand out specifically. While the content was extreme, the individuals who participated in these productions felt that they had learned so much from them and the audiences in general enjoyed the tastefully reenacted performances. To Kill a Mockingbird's content is so much less extreme than these plays. If anything, the educational value offered is so great that the production should be encouraged.

One of the strangest elements of this banning is that the book is read in the school district. Clearly, students are already exposed to this word if they have read the book already. No one is forcing individuals to go to the play (where as the book is in the curriculum) so why would production be stopped? Is it worse to hear a word than to read it - does that give it merit? If the word is such a big issue, then why not just release a statement saying that the school, nor the participants in the play, do not support the terminology presented in this work and apologize for any offense taken.

This just goes back to the issue of Grease in the town where it was banned. Grease is a much more racy piece - not that I even feel it deserved the negative attention - but if something like To Kill a Mockingbird gets banned... what shows are left?