The board of education of Ocean County Vocational Technical Schools' Grunin Performing Arts Academy has decided that the show "The Wave" is too controversial for the senior acting class to perform for their Anti-Violence Performance. This decision was made months after the show was picked out, giving the students less than a month of warning before their show was set to perform. The senior actors were then told that because of the time constraints they would be given an alternate assignment instead of a show. The Anti-Violence Performance is something that is only performed by that year's senior acting class, meaning the students would be unable to perform a show that they had been looking forward to participating in since their freshmen year. 

The Wave is about a real incident that happened in a highschool in 1967, adapted from a novel into a stage play. It portrays an experiment that a teacher did on his class after they learned about World War II and Nazi Germany to show how people fell for what Hitler told them and how Germans who weren't Nazis didn't notice what was going on. The Wave shows how history can repeat itself when propaganda is presented as something nice and teaches a valuable lesson in individuality and thinking for yourself even when a group of people tells you otherwise. 

Not allowing these actors to perform sends the message, to not only the senior actors, but all of the other students at the school, that things like antisemitism and propaganda are too controversial and upsetting to talk about. That message is given despite the fact that antisemitism and censorship are statistically on the rise. 

The senior actors have been working hard on this performance since the beginning of the school year. Pulling the performance less than a month before the show date negates all the work that they have put into it and how much they all wanted to perform it. 

In the past, Anti-Violence Performances have focused mostly on school shootings and cyberbulling. While important, these actors wanted to focus on a topic that is less spoken about. Unfortunately, the board of education decided that topics of antisemitism were too controversial and uncomfortable to talk about, leaving the senior acting class with a gap to fill in their school day and in their hearts for the show they felt deeply for. 

Sign the petition to show that suppression of current issues isn't okay and to help get the actors their show back. 

This petition was created to raise awareness and support for the senior actors. We request that any comments made on this petition remain respectful of the students and the school so no harm is done to the students' education. 

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