23: 8/10-Former Parent of a Student

CW: Language, Mention of male genitals, Mention of rape

Wow this is amazing, I really had started to think we were Alone!

My son loved Stage Right! so much, loved being on stage and preforming, but could not emotionally handle the culture of stage right. He had a few real friends there who he loved. 2 particular peers, but was pretty traumatized by a lot of the other kids and the kind of weird hierarchy that existed among the other kids and even the adults. It was a very “either your in or your out” vibe. It actually really fucked my son up and as much as he loved theater, he couldn’t bring himself to go anymore. It was a really tough decision he had to make when he chose to stop going and he still gets emotional when he thinks about it or talks about it.

The son of the Artistic Director contributed to my son’s trauma and the Artistic Director and the School Coordinator proved to be not a safe and soft place to turn, especially when it came to matters of there own kids or the kids that were friends with their children. For example, my son has seen the Artistic Director’s son’s penis on several occasions, but it’s not like my son could just go to the Artistic Director and say “your son keeps helicoptering his dick in my face and it’s making me very uncomfortable so he just dealt with it. The more uncomfortable my son seemed, the more the son of the School Administration's Son would terrorize him, and usually with sexual undertones”? it was never a supportive and friendly environment for my kid. Instead, it really ended up causing him some deep social and emotional problems and is the reason he no longer is that involved in theater beyond the high school musicals

I once confronted the Artistic Director regarding his son putting his penis in my kid's face and, on another occasion, imitated raping my son in front of some of his friends that were there. The Artistic Director didn’t seem surprised which was very telling. He said, “it’s just boys being boys”, and that he would talk to his son. It seemed the more I tried to talk to the Artistic Director about it the more my son was targeted too! The Artistic Director’s daughter also put my kid in some really uncomfortable situations, because she got to decide everyday if you would be accepted that day or ostracized and targeted

These experiences really did mess my son up pretty bad. He had massive panic attacks as soon as we got close to Stage Right, every time for years. The thing is for years we thought he was exaggerating or just not reading things right, ugh poor kid!!

When I discussed this group with my son he said “he to is afraid of the Artistic Director and that he is concerned that he could ruin any chance he might have to do theater somewhere else”.

So that is the reason I'm sharing anonymously.

Even now my son is still afraid.