The Backstreet Sin Wagon


aka *Signs The Apocalypse is Upon Us*

By now I'm sure you've all heard about the travesty which has been circulating egroups, websites, and news sources. The WWW has been alive and buzzing with facts, myths, debates, opinions....the list goes on and on. And it doesn't stop there: the story even made an appearance here in Seattle, thanks to the excellent reporting skills of the Channel 4 news team and a lack of media-worthy events. What's this?, you say? Well, for those of you who've been sequestered in solitary confinement for the past week and a half or living under a rock, here's the issue to be addressed, straight from the most reliable source the Backstreet Web World has to offer, Backstreet.net:

Source: Associated Press Texas Wire News

Thanks to Backstreet.net reader Gary B for sending this in.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A private Christian school has suspended four students for attending a Backstreet Boys concert.
Sunnybrook Christian Academy issued the suspensions late last week because the students broke a school rule barring ``involvement with inappropriate music,'' school administrator Trudie Perez said Tuesday.
The Backstreet Boys, a popular teen-age band, played to a packed crowd at the Alamodome last Wednesday night. Once school officials confirmed some students had attended, they gave them one-day suspensions.
Two students completed their suspensions and were back in school Friday. Another will complete hers upon returning from an out-of-town trip with her family.
A fourth student, high school senior Jason Trejo, and his family are complaining about the school's policy.
Trejo was enrolled in the school more than two years ago by a former stepfather he was living with, Perez said.
Trejo's mother, with whom he now lives, complained about the music policy and refused to sign a statement saying she agrees with it and other school rules, Perez said, adding that his mother has filled out papers to withdraw him from the private school.
``I pointed out, he has to abide by our rules if he's going to be here,'' the administrator said. ``We did not expel him. He was withdrawn.''
John Bernal, Jason Trejo's stepfather, said the boy's mother refuses to sign a statement agreeing with the school policy. The family maintains the policy on inappropriate music says nothing about concerts.
The Christian school forbids ``involvement'' with music groups such as the Backstreet Boys because of some song lyrics, Perez said.
``They have some good music, but some of the music, I have been told, has certain sexual references,'' Perez said. She cited the band's song lyrics, ``Are you sexual?'' and ``I want to touch your body all night.''
``That's not the message that we want to convey to our young people,'' Perez said. ``We send the message of sexual abstinence.''
The school has 315 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Trejo, who is scheduled to graduate in three months, may have to finish the year at a public school, his family said

It's a sad day indeed, when the school board of one of America's most important institutions (education), has nothing better to do than worry about what sort of music is entering their student's ears. When they could be focusing on offering worthwhile solutions to greater problems, a pack of self righteous upper eschelon board members are wasting time thinking about how the lyrics of one of the world's most popular artists can be (mis)construed. To be fair, there are some lyrics which may be considered downright 'sexual', and still more which balance precariously on the fence, but that is no cause for any real concern, not even to the Bible thumping elect of Sunbrook Christian Academy. Before the hate mail starts, let me state that I am a religous person, though I do exercise my right -and responsibility- to question certain aspects of what certain demoninations deem inappropriate. In this particular case, I disagree.

Having spent some time (8 years) enrolled in a Christian private school as a kid, I can honestly say that listening to secular music did absolutely nothing to corrupt me. I do not believe that music is the sole cause of this generation's increasing acts of violence, sexual crimes, or delinquincy. Plenty of people choose to use music as a scapegoat as opposed to looking in the direction of where the real problem lies.

I'm a firm believer that it is a parent's right to control what influences do and do not enter their children's lives. Instead of entrusting the decision making to a board of directors, why don't these parent's sit down with their kids and draw their own lines? It's a parent's responsibility to teach morals, common decency, and values. If that job has been neglected at home, do you really think some meaningless restriction is going to keep that kid in line? My guess: probably not. In contrast, it will only serve to create "forbiddin fruit."

Now, it may be argued that to kids, pop idols such as the Backstreet Boys are authority figures, but greater influence may be found in the hands of a child's parents, relatives, teachers, school heads, and other adults who feature prominently in his or her life. As the old addage goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. The fact is, you can pound values into a kid's head until you're blue in the face from shouting doctrines in repetition, but there are just some indiviuals who won't listen - no matter how hard you try. The music that same child listens to cannot be held responsible for any detour he or she might make from the straight and narrow.

Urging today's young people to remain sexually abstinent isn't a bad thing; quite the contrary. However, placing more limitations and restrictions on the targets of your campaign isn't the way to go about promoting a particular belief. Pinning the blame on the Boys isn't the answer either. Teach and lead by example, not by tyranny.

Listening to the music of a group of young men who harbor a -let's face it- practically squeaky clean image, will not prompt young people to run out and engage in some sort of mass orgie. When a young person makes the decision to remain sexually abstinent, there is little that will sway that belief, particularly if it has been built upon a solid foundation. The tunes crooned by five goodlooking men they worship from afar will certainly not be the cause of a complete moral overhaul.

The more knowledge you possess, the better decisions you're able to make in your day to day life. In my opinion, schools should be offering leadership and education to America's youth. You can't do that unless you've got your kids actually in the classroom, not at home watching reruns of "Saved by the Bell", all because tehy chose to attend a Backstreet Boys concert.

The hand of the school board should reach only as far as the perimeters of it's campus. What kids choose to do (or what their parents let them do) in their own time is their perogative. On the same token, if bringing BSB paraphenalia on campus is against school policy, then fine. Respect and obey that regulation. But when a school system starts interfering with a parent's authority, that's wrong.

The bottom line: there are worse things these kids could be listening to. There are worse examples they could look up to. As for me, I'd rather worry about the grafiti on the bathroom wall which reads, "Eminem For President". Now, that's scary.

Until next time,

~Jessi

Many thanks to Cheryl for sending me this article from Backstreet.net, and for giving me her take on a great title for this commentary. From where I sit, you're one in a million!

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