Hilarious History video gets thumbs down from admins/BY MARTHA KNIGHT

Three Port Allegany Junior-Senior High School tenth graders landed in hot water after a wintry romp through the woods creating a “Hilarious History” video for a social studies project, getting a grade of 100 from their teacher, and posting the video on YouTube.

Hunter Strawderman, Garrett Talkington and Tre Garzel formed a team to do a video project about Prohibition and the Volstead Act of 1919. The aspect they focused on, in their script and the finished video, was backwoods moonshining, or making whiskey in hand-crafted distilleries way back in the hills.

Only the opening skirmish in the war between moonshiners and Volstead Act enforcers is depicted, as one character brings the news of Prohibition to his “shine” making uncle, and they decide to hide the hooch. A government enforcer, brandishing what looks like a BB gun, arrives, and there are frantic chases through the woods, accompanied by a Willie Nelson track and some bluegrass music.

Teacher Robert Haskins acknowledges that the five-minute video might be thought to be in a “gray area” in some of its humor. But he did not see it as inappropriate. It carried out the purpose of the assignment: to look at past events of significance as they might be depicted in  “dramedy.” The projects were presented in his social studies class.

Haskins doesn’t nitpick the efforts, which are expected to be amateurish, according to students. They should present facts, and they should be interesting and amusing enough to help viewers understand and remember the topic. The three boys got an A+.

Students liked the video too, and encouraged the producers-actors to upload it to YouTube. They did so.

The boys portrayed the characters as hillbillies, somewhat ignorant, shabbily dressed, excitable, using coarse language and prone to defending their business operations at gunpoint.

In shooting the video the boys faked “cursing,” although Hunter’s mom, Carol Strawderman, says the unedited version shows the boys did not utter any actual curses or vulgarities. Neither did the finished video. However, in order to depict the rough-hewn characters’ behavior, the boys “suggested bad language” by inserting bleeps. The more bleeps, the funnier the effect, they thought.

The comedy is broad and juvenile. Someone complained—in some accounts, one or more parents of other students came to believe something bad had been shown in Haskins’ class.

High school principal Marc Budd and superintendent Tony Flint became involved. They viewed the video. They told Haskins the boys should not be given a good grade for their project. This was said to be mainly because of the bleeps, which they thought implied language that students are not allowed to use in school.

There was discussion of rejecting the project and requiring the boys to make a different one. According to Mrs. Strawderman, that punishment was changed to lowering the grade to 85. All three are good students, as are most or all taking that course. The lowest grade for any of the projects was in the mid-90s, she believed.

Parents say they have not been told of any specific rule the three boys had broken. “They are good kids, they don’t get in trouble, they do their work,” Mrs. Strawderman said. Narrowly missing honor roll in the most recent quarter brought a home penalty, she stated, because she felt Hunter had not done his best in some class, and his parents place emphasis on the kids’ taking their school work seriously.

As for Haskins, he also paid a penalty, he confirmed when asked by a reporter. A letter was placed in his permanent file. It is said to be a reprimand, based on the video being shown in class.

Flint declined to comment on “anything with the students or staff.” But he did comment when asked about a rumor to the effect that books were being removed from the high school library, either because they had inappropriate content, or to be examined for such content. “There will be no review of library materials,” Flint wrote in an email.

Carol Strawderman addresses the Port Allegany School Board at their April 8 meeting.

Librarian Nicole Line confirmed that there has been no effort to censor, sanitize or ban any materials in the library’s collection.

Another rumor found some confirmation by staff members who wanted to be anonymous for now, who stated that the Port Allegany Education Association (teachers’ union) has taken an interest in the disciplinary action concerning Haskins.

Some of the parents are expected to attend the March 25 school board meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the elementary school “Blue Room.”

The Hilarious History video all the fuss is about can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aiP6IDoRxE.  Photo by Martha Knight