At the annual County Fair Morning Ex last Wednesday, the school was surprised to notice the absence of a video from the 12th graders. At the MX, every grade customarily shows a video or presents a skit describing their booth at Country Fair but this year, the Senior BBQ received no publicity.

The seniors had made a video, though. Titled “Ode to the Senior Wiener,” it featured images of hot dogs accompanied by a voiceover of a poem written by a senior for his Censorship and Literature class. The poem contained sexual innuendo, much of it predicated on the double meaning of the word “wiener.” There were, specifically, pretty obvious phallic references, including slow motion footage of a hot dog being consumed.

The video was deemed inappropriate by Mr. Bigelow and Ms. Lee, who are the heads of the sophomore class, as well as the Dean, Mr. Amos, and so it was not shown at the Morning Ex.  Although a bit of a buzzkill, this was probably the right decision.

However, when the seniors wrote a script for an alternative live skit, it was turned down because it poked fun at the administration (“King Amos”) and the way in which it was censoring the seniors. It was not obscene in the way the video was — so with small edits it could have been played at the County Fair MX — but it was nonetheless rejected bluntly.   

After this skit’s rejection, the seniors created another one that was more appropriate, which, in theory, the seniors would’ve been able to perform had it not been turned in too late.

Even when the seniors finally asked simply to say, “The senior BBQ is in courtyard, please come,” they were denied any mic time.  The administration feared they would use it to say something inappropriate.

It is completely understandable why the original video wasn’t allowed to be shown to a JK-12th grade audience, but the way in which the situation was handled left many seniors upset and suggested a troubling lack of trust.

Having a senior wiener was a tradition for many years. Back when we used to sit in the Big Gym for the County Fair MX, we used to have fights between the senior wiener and the junior tea bag.  But over the past few years, and especially since 2014, the senior wiener has been phased out completely.  

So it makes perfect sense that students took to social media, sharing the video on Facebook with the hashtag, #freethewiener, in protest. Many students began to use the term “censorship” to describe the situation.

The seniors argue that, after all that went on, they should have been able, to read a paragraph talking about censorship in the school. Now that Parker has recently been labeled a democratic school, it’s confusing as to why they weren’t allowed to speak up and state their opinion. Censoring information can make sense, but censoring the calling out of censorship seems extreme.

The senior response may have been, at times, disproportionate.  “Censorship” is very strong word with a connotation of political repression, which was hardly the issue here. And few seniors know the second skit was turned in late.

But that doesn’t mean that the seniors are totally at fault here. The administration also didn’t handle the situation very well — and it, unlike 17 and 18 year olds, really ought to be expected to handle things reasonably at all times.  

But it wasn’t always reasonable. It was unfair that the seniors weren’t allowed to speak at all during the MX, that the administration was scared to allow them to publicize their booth. Even though in this situation it seems reasonable that there was no trust, the seniors deserve trust. The Class of 2016 are the oldest students at Parker, and while in this case they tried to make something that didn’t set a good example, in the future it should be assumed that they mean well.