CASPER — A controversial marching band performance that included acting out a sacrificial stabbing on an altar was the target of praise and outrage from local parents at a Monday meeting of the Natrona County School District Board of Education.
The performance by the Kelly Walsh High School marching band at the Oct. 19 state competition was titled “The Offering,” and included a dramatic reenactment of someone on an altar being sacrificed.
The band earned a “superior” rating for its performance, and the school board began the meeting by honoring the band for its several years of dedication and excellent showings at competitions and festivals.
Several band members were at the meeting during the recognition.
Band Director Brent Rose said the band placed first at a competition at the University of Wyoming and swept the category awards that include percussion, marching, music, winds and guard. The band also took those five “caption,” or category awards, at the State Marching Band Festival and a “superior rating.”
“We are the only band to do this this year. In fact we are the only band in the history of the state of Wyoming to win the UW (competition, sweep the caption awards at UW and sweep the caption awards at state, and that is a feat that we’ve done for the last three years in a row,” he said. “We’re very proud of our tradition here at KW.”
‘The Offering’
However, the band’s most recent program at state, “The Offering,” involving an altar with an eclipse of the sun and the acting out of a human sacrifice has raised concerns with some parents and local residents. Three members of the public spoke out at the meeting and there were comments, both pro and con, posted to a YouTube video of the performance.
A description of the program online said it’s a “tribal-themed” show that “presents a ceremony of sacrifice to the sun with primal rhythms and fiery visuals igniting the field.”
Local resident Renee Naquin said she appreciated the band members and their efforts, but expressed “utter disgust” at the content of the band’s performance at the state band festival held at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.
Naquin said she did not attend the festival but read a Cowboy State Daily column on the event by Jonathan Lange and agreed with him that she wanted to know what the adults responsible for the program were thinking when they chose to allow it.
“A student was dragged up onto a stage, tied up and then another student pretended to stab them in their heart, complete with screams until they died,” she said. “With all of the student-on-student real violence that has been going on in our community for the past year with the stabbing and all of the violence, I would like to know, and our community would like to know, if the adults in charge really thought this reenactment was a responsible choice.
“Right is right and wrong is wrong. In my opinion the fake killing was wrong and not a good example for our students.”
Her reference to the violence referred to a fatal stabbing April 7 of a 14-year-old school district student, Robert “Bobby Maher,” at a mall by two 15-year-old students and the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old female district student, Lenae Brown, by another then 15-year-old on May 14.
Resident Leslie Hall-Huz said she wanted to “express my dismay” at the mock sacrifice, and also question the authorities who approved the program in light of the past year’s teen violence.
“Where did it originate? Was it purchased or created in house?” she asked. “Instead of trivializing violence, we should be fostering strength, compassion and community. I encourage everyone to consider the impact such displays have on students and our community.”
Leslie Hall-Huz questions who the adults were that authorized the performance of “The Offering” at a Natrona County school board meeting on Monday. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Kelly Walsh High School marching band performs “The Offering” as shown on YouTube. Part of the performance involves kneeling before an eclipsed sun. (Via YouTube)
‘What Kind Of Message?’
Resident Maureen Scribner, who said she has had children who were in the Kelly Walsh band and the Casper Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps, said she understood the hours of practice and commitment the students put into their performance to achieve their top recognition.
She called for a better mentoring effort on the part of band and school leaders, and also noted the suicides and teen violence that continue to occur in the community.
“Kids have a lot to deal with and to have them perform something like that, what kind of message are we sending, what message are we making them send to their classmates?” she asked. “They are already struggling. We could do better for our schools and our students and our community to put out something a little more positive and not feed into that.”
A video of the band’s performance shows a few members of the band pulling together an apparent altar scene as prerecorded music plays and other band members march around it from behind on both the right and left.
They then assemble before the altar that shows an eclipsed sun as mysterious words are spoken. They kneel before the altar and, as the show is introduced, the xylophone and drum players collapse on the floor.
But they are resurrected.
As the eerie music plays, the other band members keep bowing to the altar with a band member standing on the stage in front of the eclipsed sun. The percussion section begins, the horns start to play and the performance goes on through a cycle of choreographed marching before the focus returns to the altar and the mock sacrifice and scream.
‘Performance Was Beautiful’
School Board Trustee Raymond Catellier said he appreciated the public drawing the performance to board’s attention.
He said Superintendent Angela Hensley did a “deep dive” into the logic behind choosing the program and that the report shows the band has seen a “decline in the ability of the students entering the program which has required the band leadership to choose lower-graded arrangements.”
He said he hopes the school continues to support the arts programs in its budget.
“The performance was beautiful,” Catellier said. “Clearly no one was murdered, no one was worshipping the sun, the performance did not promote violence or pagan religions, and to say anything otherwise is negligent and distracts from the real issues affecting our community.
“I would like to thank Mr. Rose and all the staff members that make the Kelly Walsh marching band such a special group and congratulations on the sustained excellence that you’ve shown.”
Trustee Michael Stedillie, a former drama instructor in the school district, said the performance was all about “art.”
“When it comes to art there is rarely a hard and fast universal acceptance,” he said. “The thing to remember is that these young people were judged to be superior by trained and experienced marching band adjudicators with years of judging band performances. We are now and forever so very proud of you.”
The band’s performance of “The Offering” on YouTube has 83 comments, with many supporting and defending it and others characterizing the program as “disturbing.”
“As someone in the show, I’d like to make it clear that we were told nothing of religion,” one student wrote in the comments. “Just sell the part for the performance, and that’s all it is, a performance.”
School district spokesperson Tanya Southerland said she was unaware of any calls to the district by local residents regarding the issue and the only comments challenging the program choice were ones she heard at the school board meeting.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
