Posted 12/07/2006 05:46:00 PM by Douglas

Some would say that school isn't the place to watch movies. More specifically, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school district said school is no place for a teacher to show an R rated movie that shows brief nudity.

A high school teacher in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville district was suspended this week for five days without pay for showing students a French movie that contained brief nudity, school district attorney Quentin Price said Tuesday.

The district's seven-member board voted unanimously to suspend French teacher Heather Salazar for showing an R-rated movie, Price said in Wednesday's editions of the Beaumont Enterprise. About two weeks ago, Salazar showed her students the Oscar-nominated French movie Amelie. The 129-minute movie tells the story of a woman on a quest to make others happy and on the journey she finds love, according to the Internet Movie Database. The 2001 Oscar-nominated movie has an R rating because of the sexual content, the Web site said.

Salazar, who's in her fifth contract year with the district, was suspended for violating a high school policy for videotape use. Price said Salazar didn't get pre-approval before showing the movie.

Who could argue with a school's videotape use policy? Still, any teacher that shows an R rated movie with nudity should expect trouble, no matter how benign the movie is. The only thing I remember about that movie (except for the gnome) is that I thought it was cute. I'd like to see it again, but it hasn't made it on my radar.

But then again, I saw Romeo and Juliet in high school, and even though it's rated G, there's still a full camera shot of Romeo's ass and Juliet's rack that titillated (hehe) my sophomore English class. I don't think anyone was fired, though. I'm pretty sure no one was turned on. At least by the movie.