Friday,
February 23,
“Fuggedaboudit” Fallout –
One More Stereotyping Victim
The
ANNOTICO Report
See
the extensive reportage on this matter published last November
Johnny
Amoroso-Levato's parent's objected to a school play titled “Fuggedaboudit
“ that had all the Italian Mob negative stereotypes.
The
Principal and
Predictably,
Johnny faced a "hostile" environment, so with assistance Johnny was
transferred to a private school.
Script
writer Matt Myers,nor Batavia School Superintendent Jack Barshinger responded
to requests as to how they might react to a school play titled "The
Shylocks" with all the negative Jewish stereotypes.
The
Schools supposedly "Preach" Tolerance and Sensitivity, and
"Practice" Bigotry... ????
Our
Respect to Johnny and his mom, Marina Amoroso-Levato, and the Order Sons
of Italy that supported them.
Play Flap
Leads to Site Swap
Kane
By
Eric Schelkopf
Thursday,
February 22, 2007
Johnny
Amoroso-Levato had been a seventh-grader at Rotolo, but left in November after
the school allowed performances of “Fuggedaboudit” to go on,
despite objections raised by the family, claiming that it stereotyped
Italian-Americans, said officials with Order Sons of Italy in
Amoroso-Levato
enrolled at Aurora Christian, a private school, in January.
He
said, “Mom, I can’t go back,” said his mother, Marina. “I
can’t go back to a school where there was such a wrong thing done.”
Batavia
School Superintendent Jack Barshinger said the district did not hear any
concerns from the family after the controversy.
Barshinger
said Rotolo Principal Donald McKinney worked to make sure that the student was
in a safe and secure environment.
“The
environment was just the opposite of hostile,” Barshinger said.
Marina
Amoroso-Levato did not specify any school-related incidents but said her son
was harassed at December’s Celebration of Lights festival in downtown
“Several
kids were looking at him and laughing, and he pulled his hood over his head,”
she said.
In
an e-mail statement Wednesday, Order Sons of Italy in
“They
[the family] stood up to be counted, and they need help as a result of that,”
said Dona De Sanctis, national deputy executive director for the Order Sons of
Italy. “By standing up and protesting this, the family found itself in a
situation where Johnny was not comfortable in school anymore.”
The
play controversy was sparked when Marina Amoroso-Levato contacted Washington-based
Order Sons of Italy in
The
group said the play stereotyped Italian-Americans as gangsters. School
officials disagreed, saying that the message of the play was to not judge a
book by its cover.
The
Order Sons of Italy went to federal court to seek an injunction to prevent the
school from staging the play, but U.S. District Court Judge John Grady denied
the request.
The
ANNOTICO Reports
Can
be Viewed, and are Archived at:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net