Offended by the language of Iowa State’s production of “Fires in the Mirror,” parents of eighth-grade students at Johnston Middle School requested vulgar language be omitted from the script.

After reading the script, some parents complained to school officials because of the use of “shit,” “piss,” “pussy,” “ho” and “bitch.”

The parents requested the removal of the words or they would not allow their children to attend the special performance.

But school officials still wanted the children to attend the culturally diverse piece about real life incident in 1991 when a group of Hasidic Lubavitcher Jews collided with a group of Caribbeans and African-Americans.

Play director Shirley Basfield Dunlap does not believe in changing lines and refused to be censored for something she felt was important.

Despite the parents objections, the students did attend the performance. Students will participate in discussions on the appropriate usage of the words and the issues raised in the play.

This is another case of parents becoming over-protective by sheltering their children from things they are exposed to everyday in the hallways of their schools.

Junior high and middle schools are cesspools of bad language and terminology.

Junior high is a place where most children use vulgar language everyday. Most of us learned the most potent words in our vocabularies in junior high.

It is simply ludicrous to assume these students have never heard or even used these words.

Students are exposed to these words everyday in prime-time television, pop music and the movies.

Children can watch “90210” or “Melrose Place,” but they can not watch a play that is education and deals with real people and issues.

Most popular music contains obscene language and even “wholesome” movies created by Disney use the words in question.

Parents have a right to be concerned about what their children are exposed to, but they cannot shelter their children from everything, especially things that could be beneficial to the children’s understanding of the world they live in.

Sharon Mahoney, eighth-grade language arts and history teacher at Johnston Middle School, said it best, “At one point, we need to look beyond the vulgarity of the word and see the vulgarity of what people do to one another. That is the real vulgarity.”