School Issues Apology for Slurs in Play

The principal of Newport Harbor High School has issued a public apology for racist and sexual slurs made during a school performance of the musical “Grease.”

Michael Vossen said he decided to apologize after parents complained to the Newport Beach school. On Sunday, he published an open letter in a newspaper that circulates in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

“On behalf of the administration at Harbor High, I . . . apologize to our school community,” the letter reads. “We . . . truly regret if this play insulted anyone.”

Vossen said the two racial slurs, which he declined to specify, are part of the script. Because of copyright restrictions, they were not edited out, he said.

In addition, student actors at one performance inserted some “inappropriate sexual remarks” not in the script, he said.

Complaints have been coming in ever since the January production, Vossen said, adding that in the future the school will make “every effort to ensure that plays do not contain any type of offensive material.”