South Willimasport Director Dismissed In Wake Of Spamalot Controversy

According to a 9/19/2014 article by Howard Sherman, the drama director at South Williamsport Area Junior/Senior High School in Pennsylvania, Dawn Burch, was fired from her position. If you’re just coming into this controversy, South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Junior/Senior High School administrators canceled an upcoming production of Monty Python’s Spamalot that Burch
was set to direct due to what the school’s principal, Jesse Smith, described as “homosexual themes ” (details).

Sherman’s article reports that Burch was dismissed via email and told that the decision was due to “job performance.” If that sounds suspiciously like retaliation to you, Sherman would likely agree.

It doesn’t take a detective to figure out what’s really going on. At the beginning of July, Burch asserted that her musical choice for this school year, Spamalot, had been nixed by the school due to its gay content. School officials vehemently denied that was the case.

At the time this article was written, Sherman’s post has garnered more than 100 comments and as before I encourage readers to contact Principal Smith and Superintendent Stamm via their South Williamsport Area School District email addresses to express your views in light of this recent development.

• Principal Jesse Smith: jsmith@swasd.org
• Superintendent Dr. Mark Stamm: mstamm@swasd.org