“Romeo, Where Art Thou Romeo?” is a phrase WCHS students have heard throughout their academic careers. Wiliam Shakespeare has been pushed down the throats of WCHS students, and the students have finally decided to strike.  reading his plays, analyzing them and acting them out, the students of WCHS have scheduled a week of not coming to school to make their voices heard.  WCHS senior Suzie McDackie and a few of her friends got together on March 14th, 2023 to plan out the strike. 

“Ev’r since middle school those gents’ve been f’rcing shakespeare down our throats in english! Mcdackie said. “[WCHS] students art not restful of the romantiziation of such a h’rrible playwright”

Students typically begin with reading and acting out Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” in freshman year. By 10th grade, they are forced to write an analytical essay about one of his previous works. Reading and attempting to analyze Shakespeare brings sadness to many WCHS students.

“Shakespeare is so hard to und’rstand.  That gent uses vocabulary yond most students might not und’rstand and mine own teachest’r mr. Dickens did fail me f’r not und’rstanding his w’rds in mine own essay,” said Mcdackie.

The Students Against Shakespeare (SAS) organization has created petitions and collected signatures from students and staff across the county. SAS does not want to end the lessons on Shakespeare at just WCHS; they want to make it countywide. WCHS junior and SAS Vice President Monica Bobowensky has led her team to schedule multiple protests throughout the school year.

“This causeth is v’ry closeth to mine own heart, mine own grandmoth’r hath used to f’rce mine own ten broth’rs and i to p’rf’rm hamlet f’r h’r each evening during the summ’r,” Bobowensky said. “I wanteth to lib’rate mine own fellow students from shakespeare.” 

While students are quite pleased with the movement,many teachers have taken several actions against it. New MCPS official Shakespeare expert William Finklebaum has gone mad trying to silence the WCHS students even going as far as contacting the Board of Education. 

“What these children are doing is truly an abomination of society! They need to be stopped and truly be punished for their actions,” Finklebaum said.

The MCPS Teachers’ Union gathered together in response to Finklebaum, with teachers pointing out how the outbursts have caused a disruption in the students’ learning.  Finklebaum and the WCHS English Department have started working on an intense AP Shakespeare class in collaboration with the College Board.