L.A. School District to Ban Fifth-Grade Plays About U.S. History: 'Culturally Insensitive'

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is banning a celebrated series of fifth-grade musical plays about American history at a local charter school because, the district says, they are “culturally insensitive.”

For nearly three decades, the fifth-graders at Marquez Charter Elementary in Pacific Palisades have performed musicals about crucial periods in the formation of the United States.

These include Miracle in Philadelphia , about the Constitutional Convention; Hello, Louisiana! , about the voyage of Lewis and Clark; and Water and Power , about the Industrial Revolution. (A fourth-grade play, Gold Dust or Bust , focuses on the history of California.)

The musicals, co-written by Jeff Lantos (with music composed by the late jazz pianist Bill Augustine), are so succe