Part of “Saving Private Ryan” was shown in a Marysville Ohio High School sophomore history class last week. Parents had not been notified ahead of time that the R-rated movie would be used in the classroom. One 15-year-old female student was bothered by the movie and asked to be excused during the class.

I have never seen SPR, but looked up a few reviews to see what others thought of the movie. Overall the movie received good reviews, but it was definitely considered extremely violent.

goodnewsfilmreviews.com had this to say about the level of violence:

Cautions: This is a war movie, therefore there’s plenty of brutal violence and grisly death scenes. This film particularly has vibrant battle sequences and deaths that are some of the most striking to ever be put to screen. There’s also plenty of salty language but given the subject matter, it is permissible.

Do many teens watch movies of this type and worse? Undoubtedly, however since the public schools are supported by our tax dollars, they are (or should be) accountable to the taxpayers. Concerned, conservative parents should have input into questionable material such as this. At the very least schools should notify the parents and provide the student the option of sitting out the class.

Although we homeschool, this is the school district we live in. I’m sure R-rated movies with even more questionable content are shown in schools across the country. This one hit pretty close to home though.

“Superintendent Larry Zimmerman said that he put a hold on showing any R or PG-13 movies while the district takes a closer look at its procedures, but stopped short of calling for an all-out ban, pointing out their potential educational value.”

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