Chapel Hill parent objects to 'Hunger Games' school field trip
The parent of a middle-school student in Chapel Hill is questioning the school's decision to allow a field trip to see the movie "The Hunger Games."
Posted — UpdatedEighth-graders at Smith Middle School will be heading Thursday morning to see the movie, which earned $155 million in its opening last weekend.
One parent sent an email to the school's principal on Tuesday, saying that he is not allowing his daughter to make the trip, because he is concerned about the level of violence in the movie.
The movie is based on author Suzanne Collins' novel about children in a post-apocalyptic world who fight to their deaths on live TV.
The students read the book in class as part of a curriculum on dystopian literature.
"We feel that is appropriate to have a forum to discuss that violence, to have an academic forum in which students can read this book and see this move and be asked to critique it, to analyze it," Smith Middle School Principal Philip Holmes said Wednesday.
Holmes said that it is the parents' choice whether to allow their children to go on any field trip.
He said parents received a permission slip a month ago to give them time to decide whether to allow their children to go see the movie, as well as time to ask the school any questions about the trip.
School officials said they've only received one formal complaint.
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