Jan 17, 2013 3 min read

California Area School District officials are mulling how to best make over the high school spring musical after complaints arose that its references to suicide are distasteful given that a California student took her own life less than two years ago.

The drama club has been preparing to perform “Zombie Prom,” an off-Broadway musical that opened in 1996, which features a love-struck teenage protagonist who returns from beyond the grave after committing suicide.

Sadly, the subject of teenage suicide isn’t new to the school. In April 2011, Felicity Macosta, a 14-year-old varsity cheerleader and basketball and volleyball player, took her own life.

Parents concerned about the musical brought the issue before the school board during the public comment session at its meeting Wednesday.

Reached by phone Thursday, Superintendent Brian Jackson said school officials are still deciding how best to handle the matter. He said they have been in contact with the musical’s publisher about a new version, written with younger performers in mind, titled: “Zombie Prom: Atomic Edition.”

“The publisher has given us an alternate script that has no reference of suicide and has any type of adult content removed from it,” he said.

Jackson said administrators will be looking line-by-line for anything that might be considered insensitive in the modified script.

Students have reportedly been working on the musical since after Thanksgiving break.

Lara Macosta, Felicity Macosta’s mother, said she did not want to start a fight and had simply called administrators to ask why a musical with such subject matter had been chosen despite school policies against discussing suicide. She pointed out that past requests to set up a scholarship in her daughter’s name and to allow students to wear bracelets and hair ribbons in her honor were denied based on policies seeking to prevent the glorification of the manner of her death.

Jackson explained that drama club director Claudia Bennett and her students had selected the musical for three reasons: It was contemporary, it was within the club’s budget and the teens were drawn to the zombie genre, which has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity.

With regard to any related policies, Jackson, who was a principal at the time, said he believed the former administration had been acting on recommendations from grief counselors not to bring added attention to the girl’s manner of death. He said the district has no formal written polices on handling such an incident and he learned of the scholarship issue only Wednesday.

Jackson added that the Macostas are a good family and acknowledged that he would have a hard time being reminded of the tragedy it had happened to his own child.

Despite not caring for the choice of musicals, Macosta stressed that she did not want to see the show canceled. An alumna of California, Macosta said she and her son, a senior, have performed in several high schools musicals.

“Of course, I want these children to have this play,” she said.

Macosta said she learned about the musical after several parents called and sent her text messages Tuesday. She did not attend the board meeting Wednesday because of the death of a family member in Uniontown.

She added that she did not want the publicity that has arisen from the controversy, explaining that other parents had reached out to the media.

“This thing has snowballed just because of some oversight on the administration’s part,” Macosta said. “It’s disappointing.”

The musical is scheduled to run Feb. 28 to March 2.