Harmless?

In early March, I went to a performance of Harmless, a new play by local playwright Brett Neveu.  In the play, three characters - a professor, college president, and army psychologist - square off over the fate of a student who has written some extremely violent material in his creative writing class.  The student, an Iraq war vet, is never seen.

As the three authority figures discuss the student’s fate, they struggle to define their positions, to determine what the real issue is.  Is the real issue the creative writing professor’s directive to his students to push the boundaries of their writing?  Is the real issue the student’s possible post-traumatic stress disorder?  Is the real issue the intersection of authority between the school and the military/medical establishment?

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, I think we’ve all been thinking about the issues in Harmless, especially the role of teachers when it comes to students who produce disturbing or violent material in class.  As pre-K-12 teachers, our relationship with students - and their parents - is different than for college professors.  So, I’ve been thinking a lot about Allen Lee.

Lee, a senior at an Illinois high school, wrote an essay - more of a free association ramble - for his creative writing class a few weeks ago.  In it, he described violent acts and denigrated his writing teacher.  The teacher took the essay to her administration who reported it to the police.  Lee was arrested on disorderly conduct charges, expelled temporarily from school, and discharged by the Marines. (Read more about Lee in the Sun Times or Tribune).

Over the last week, Lee (or, perhaps, Lee’s lawyer) has done a fairly good job of reframing himself as a misguided kid who let his attitude get out of hand.  I read the essay and honestly, to me, what stands out more than the violence is his contempt for his teacher. Every time I think about it, I wonder how I would have responded to this essay if I had been in her shoes.

Sometimes as teachers we push students to open up their interior lives for us.  I’m not sure we prepare ourselves adequately to respond to what we find there.

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