The puritanical attitude of Toronto School Boards quite frankly boggles the mind. Instead of facing the realities of youth today and taking the opportunity to open a dialogue about the issues, they have chosen to shut down the process and pretend that the problems don’t exist.

The Toronto Boards have taken issue with a play called “Born Ready”, written by Joseph Jomo Pierre who grew up in Toronto. The play, which debuted in 2005, is being presented this month at the Theatre Passe Muraille as part of a double bill with a play called “Smokescreen” by David S. Craig. Both of these plays have themes which unfortunately resonate with today’s youth. Born Ready deals with today’s urban gun culture and Smokescreen speaks to drug abuse. Anyone who reads a Toronto newspaper or watches the news can’t deny how much these 2 issues have profoundly affected our youth. The beauty of Born Ready is that it emphasizes the need to speak honestly about the causes of youth violence within our communities. As such it is targeted to school audiences. In an effort to reach our youth and to open an honest dialogue, the Theatre Passe Muraille is promoting this double bill to students in addition to holding forums and question/answer periods.

Instead of embracing this opportunity the Toronto District School Board has not fully endorsed it. This is however better than the reaction of the Toronto Catholic District School Board who sent a memo to all its principals informing them that they do not recommend the show.

When will the Boards wake up and admit that guns and drugs are a part of today’s urban culture and need to be dealt with - not ignored. Perhaps these are the types of play that families with teenagers should go and see together. To purchase tickets go to their website. http://www.passemuraille.on.ca/