You are a high school student at an evangelical Christian school. You personally may or may not believe in the religion but it’s not a factor in your parents’ decision to put you there (“Deal with it. Convert, believe, or don’t. And if they give you a hard time, you can always go along and pretend.”)
The school makes it a rule that you have to attend (and your parents must pay for) a 2-3 week stay at a Christian camp in which there are games, food, activities, but most importantly mandatory sermons are the norm. During this time, there is a talent show.
You don’t participate in the talent show. At this talent show there’s an endless runthrough of light hearted but proper snippets of acting/musicals, peaceful singing, and sone piano performances.
And then these 4 students (from a year younger that you don’t know well) get on the stage. By general reputation they are rebels and troublemakers. They perform The End by Bullet for My Valentine live.
They give a convincing performance as rock instrumentalists and vocalists but because of the death metal vibes to the song, the teachers are all frowning (except for the drama teacher who smiles). About 70-80 percent of the students in the crowd look angry/concerned.
The band extends the live performance and loops the parts where the singers growl several times over. In the middle of the performance, a very angry looking PE teacher gets up and lifts off several speakers from the camp gymnasium. However, the music continues to play largely uninterrupted somehow (the performers are not intimidated). After the performance, the crowd claps though there is very little cheering and the volume is down compared to the other mainstream performances.
Following the incident, the school has received complaints from the parents about this camp and are looking to sanction the students who took part in the “death metal performance.”
On the one hand they are offended by the music and it’s impact on the spirituality of the students, on the other hand they do realize there’s no explicit rule banning what they did and they don’t want to come across as too harsh. At the same time, the Christian parents donate a lot of money and they are vocal.
To appear balanced, they begin to collect opinions from randomly selected students on what should be done. You are selected. When interviewed what do you say? They will ask you
1. How have you been impacted by the students’ performance of that song at a worship event?
2. Is it an okay thing to do?
3. What else can you tell me about those students?
4. What kind of disciplinary measures if any, should be taken?
They tell you you are 100 percent free to speak your mind without consequences but you are aware that in the past, students have suffered from subtle degrees of ostracization and differential treatment if they don’t align with the school’s theology.
What do you say in answer to those questions? Keep in mind that your parents want you to play ball with the school and won’t be in your corner if there’s a fall out.
