I recently attended the “Annie” production this last weekend put on by the North Kitsap High Drama Department. The play was excellent. The actors/actresses were fabulous, the musical talent was phenomenal, the choreography and sets were top-notch. However, much to my surprise, there were several instances of swear words used throughout the production. In fact, “damn” was exclaimed more than a dozen times. I was taken aback to say the least. I was sitting with small children all dressed up with their moms for a mother/daughter night out and could see concern on their faces each time the word was used. Earlier in the week, several of my children attended the production as field trips in elementary school and middle school. I was told, after the fact, the bad language was omitted for those proudctions but on occassion the word “slipped” out. I did not see the play until Saturday night; not realizing that I should have previewed the play prior to letting (or not letting) my children attend the production. Like I said, the play was fabulous, but the swear words did not need to be added. They were intended to be humorous as “Daddy Warbucks” was trying to break a bad habit of swearing once he had adopted Annie. However, the humor fell on deaf ears as I think the audience was somewhat taken aback as well. This production had several small children and young teenagers in the cast, as well as seated in the audience. I feel this should have been a huge factor in deciding whether or not to use coarse language.

The youth of our community are amazing and have limitless potential. Let us not become desensitized to coarse language and find it commonplace. Our youth deserve better than that.

Linsey Uffens

Poulsbo