The Partoff School is a progressive, K-12 independent day school with a student body of over 1000. Most of these students live in the wealthy and predominately "White" neighborhood in which Partoff is located. Consequently, the student body is fairly homogeneous and of a higher socio-ecomonic level. The faculty has reconized the need for fostering a more diverse enviroment and over the last few years has made strides to accomplish this. Some of these efforts include hiring the first African American female in its history to head the middle school, offering scholarships to lower income students and encorporating a multicultural perspective into the curriculum. Partoff views diversity as the missing link to overall excellence even though it already has an excellent reputation for its rigorous academic program and strong commitment to the arts. Its mission is to develop independence, creativity, and tolerance within its students.

With dozens of courses in the arts, Partoff offers students diverse ways to become independent, creative, and racially tolerant. An example of this is the middle school elective of Musical Theater for seventh and eighth grade students. Under the supportive guidance of the teacher, the students work together to develop an original musical to be performed in front of the student body. The students are given a great deal of freedom in putting the play together. They write the script, create the musical score, design the sets, and rehearse as a collaborative group. Although mutlicultural issues have not been presented in the past, Partoff's faculty hopes that it will not be long before students encorporate the multicultural perspectives that they are experiencing in the traditional curriculum.

One year, the students in the course decided to base their musical on a popular children's book entitled "Miss Nelson is Missing". The story is about a second grade teacher named Miss Neslon who has trouble maintaining order in her classroom. After a difficult week, sweet Miss Nelson - who also happens to be a blond and blue-eyed Causcasion- gets fed-up. As a solution, she hits upon a brilliant idea: she will disguise herself as a mean and ugly woman and be her own "substitute" teacher for the week. Her students are devastated at the military-like style of the "substitute" and desperately want Miss Nelson to return. They promise they will never again take her kindness for granted and are thrilled when Miss Nelson finally returns.

The Musical Theater class was excited to begin production and met twice a week from September through March to create and rehearse their musical. By April, they were ready for showtime and enthusiastically advertised their production. They planned four performances, each aimed at a specific audience. The first performance, to be held during school on a Tuesday morning, was for all the students in the lower school. The second was for grades 3 through 5 on Tuesday afternoon and the third for grades 6 through 8 on Wednesday morning. The final show would be on Wednesday evening for all of the middle school parents. This was the traditional schedule and there seemed to be no reason why it should not be used again this year.

Early that Tuesday morning, the lower grade students eagerly arrived in the auditorium to watch the show. As the play commenced, the young students were clearly enjoying the performance. When Miss Nelson began her transformation into Viola Swamp, they "ooed" and "awed" their positive reactions to the show. However, the new African American middle school principal, Ms. LaBlanc, was horrified by what she saw. On stage, Miss Nelson had arrived at the beauty parlor and demanded "Make me ugly!" To add to the suspense, Miss Nelson turned her back to the audience and the beauticians went to work. In the middle of the "make over", the girl portraying Miss Nelson exited and was replaced by another girl who would be playing Viola Swamp. Once the switch had been made, the "new" teacher looked at herself in a mirror, got out of her chair, turned to face the audience, and declared "Perfect! I'm ugly." What the audience then saw was a gangly, taller girl, without any make up on, who happened to be the only African American in the cast.

The middle school principal was outraged. She watched the rest of the performance on pins and needles, hoping that some some reversal of the scene would occur. However, the play concluded with the sweet Miss Nelson re-appearing and the mean Viola Swamp disappearing. The principal felt she had to do something but didn't know where to begin for a number of reasons. One had to do with her own personal history. Being the first African American to ever hold a high level administrative position at Partoff, Ms. LaBlanc had already developed a reputation as being a "crusader" in the fight against individual and institutional racism at the school. This reputation was solidified when she had strictly disciplined a group of seventh grade students for promoting the website of the National Association for the Advancement of White People. Needless to say, this had ruffled a few feathers among the faculty and parents, many of whom felt she was making a big deal out of "kid stuff". Fearing that others would view this as one of those times, she got up and looked for help. When she could not immediately speak with the teacher of the Musical Theater class, she settled on consulting with a faculty member from the drama department. She asked why a White student was cast as the "good" teacher and a Black student as the "bad" teacher. He replied that the students had cast the show themselves and that the girl playing Viola Swamp had wanted the role. Frustrated and angry, but needing time to think, Ms. LaBlanc left the theater and went back to her office.

During lunch, Ms. LaBlanc consulted with the Musical Theater teacher. The teacher did not see a problem with the casting and felt that it would be against the principles of artistic freedom to interfere. He also confirmed that the young black actress had actively sought the role and had spent a considerable amount of time preparing for it. A subsequent meeting with the young girl herself went the same way, with the girl insisting she had wanted the part and that she saw nothing wrong with someone Black portraying Viola Swamp. A call to the girl's parents yielded an acknowledgement of a possible misrepresentation of African American Females. Although they had also felt some misgivings, they had chosen to support their daughter's decision. Finally, after having a hurried meeting with the school head, he declared that he could see both sides of the issue and that he was leaving the matter in her hands.

With time running out before the second show that afternoon, the principal had to make a quick decision. The play could go on, but only if a different girl were to play the part of Viola Swamp at the rest of the performances. The theater teacher and the cast protested, but the principal stood her ground and when the curtain rose that afternoon, a White girl was cast as the evil substitute. However, without having had sufficient time to prepare, the girl forgot many of her lines and the show went miserably. Ms. LaBlanc, who also attended this show, met with the cast afterwards and tried to explain the situation to them. She also encouraged the new Viola Swamp to carefully study the script that night.

The next morning, the principal and the school head were barraged with phone calls from irate parents who were demanding that the original cast be reinstated. With talk spreading throughout the school, students also began to say how unfair the principal's decision had been. However, a sizeable number of the African American students backed the principal and racial tensions in the school seemed to be escalating. The school head, who wanted to show his support for the principal and therefore did not overrule her, still pressed for a resolution to the growing crisis. While violent reactions seemed a very remote possibility, the principal was worried that this incident, unless dealt with properly, could severely damage the gains in racial understanding she felt Partoff had achieved in the last few years. Show time was fast approaching and all eyes were on the principal to see what she would do.

Questions:

1. What should the middle school principal do? What are the implications - short-term and long-term - of each choice?
2. What allies and/or additional resources are likely to be available to the principal in confronting the immediate situation?
3. What follow up should take place with the Primary Division students and teachers, the teacher and students of the Musical Theater class, and the parents of the cast? Can this incident become a learning experience for the community?
4. Once the performances are over, what can be done long-term to make sure that something like this will not happen again?