Evening show cancellation frustrates
Administration cites safety concern as reason for change
Senior Muna Ahmed smiles while the crowd applauds her after reading a poem during the multicultural show, April 12. During the show, students performed in a variety of different mediums such as song, rap, dance and spoken word.
April 18, 2019
As senior multicultural show host Sabnyyah Bilal fought to maintain the scheduled evening performance, she said she felt disrespected having to constantly stand up for her beliefs.
“We weren’t consulted about anything that was happening with Prom and we didn’t know about how Prom was during our holiday, our religious holiday, and then they ended up canceling the show. We shouldn’t have to be fighting for our religion and our culture two times in one month, the same week,” Bilal said.
According to Principal Scott Meyers, the evening show was canceled be it might have jeopardized student safety.
“As a building principal, if there is something that’s perceived to compromise students’ safety, it’s my job to make sure that we don’t take a chance on that. And so we really didn’t have an option of having the show that evening,” Meyers said.
According to Meyers, on the snow day April 11, one day before the performance, the administration received information regarding unease of an occurrence at the evening multicultural show.
“There were concerns among students that were performing, people in St. Louis Park that were concerned, and people from outside of St. Louis Park,” Meyers said.
We shouldn’t have to be fighting for our religion and our culture two times in one month, the same week.
— Sabnyyah Bilal, senior
According to Grade Level Coordinator and show supervisor Donielle Singer, the student leaders planned to have students perform as well as guests at the evening show, which was not fully communicated.
“There were some acts that I wasn’t aware that they were scheduled, and I’m not going to say that the students tried to put it past me or what. We just missed that communication and ultimately that is what canceled the show,” Singer said.
Junior show leader Zahra Mohamud said she felt she wasted her time preparing for the evening show.
“It was offensive. The performance you see during school is half of it,” Mohamud said. “We’ve been stressing over something that wasn’t happening anymore, and that’s not fair.”
Mohamud said she planned the evening show to share the event with the community.
“It was always during school and people didn’t like that because friends and family weren’t able to attend,”Mohamud said.
She added that while the administration recognized the show’s success at a meet- ing seventh hour April 12, there was no compromise.
“I just felt like for them having the during school one was enough and for us, it wasn’t enough. That wasn’t what we wanted,” Mohamud said. “Everyone felt what they were saying wasn’t being heard.”
Meyers said the performance couldn’t be rescheduled because of the widespread use of the Auditorium as the school year ends.
“In terms of not rescheduling, it was my understanding when people were planning it, that there’s not availability for our Audi- torium in the future,” Meyers said.
According to Mohamud, the third show’s cancelation made her question whether she wanted to continue to lead next year.
“Not only me, but so many people have been working hard, so many people were looking forward to the after-school performance. So, in the future I don’t really want to take that responsibility anymore. I even told the principal this, too,” Mohamud said.
