Vagina Monologues author to address school board over suspension issue

Last Updated: Saturday, March 10, 2007 | 11:12 AM ET

CBC Arts

Eve Ensler, writer of The Vagina Monologues, will speak to the school district in New York state where three girls were suspended for using the word "vagina" while performing a section of the play.

Susan Celia Swan, Ensler's assistant, confirmed Friday the writer will speak on Tuesday at a school theatre in the New York city suburb of Cross River just before a meeting of the board of education.

She will appear with the 16-year-old girls who uttered the word — Hannah Levinson, Megan Reback and Elan Stahl — according to school board member Peter Breslin.

John Jay High School Principal Richard Leprine said the three had agreed not to use the word but included it in an excerpt from the play they recited at a school event last week. Leprine suspended the girls for a day each.

Leprine said they had promised not to use the word because there might be young children in the audience. The three say they never made such an agreement and have had an outpouring of support from fellow students and parents.

Three hailed as 'Vagina Warriors'

Ensler responded to news of the suspensions by calling it "a throwback to the Dark Ages" and hailed the girls as "Vagina Warriors."

District Superintendent Bob Lichtenfeld then postponed the suspensions.

Since news broke earlier in the week about the situation, the teens have become anti-censorship icons.

"We did it because we believe in the word vagina, and because we believe it's not a bad word. It shouldn't be a word that is ever censored, and the way in which we used it was respectable," Reback told the New York Times.