The songs include lyrics about binge drinking and sex with other students at Johnston High School.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, February 5, 2005

BY SETH McLAUGHLIN
Journal Staff Writer

JOHNSTON -- Fourteen students at Johnston High School have been suspended for producing a 25-song rap CD that, among other things, refers to violence, binge drinking and sex with other students.

Schools Supt. Margaret Iacovelli said a four-day investigation into who made the CD ended yesterday, when the students involved were given five-day suspensions, and ordered to perform 10 hours of community service and receive some in-school sensitivity training.

"We had to address the disruption at the school that the CD caused," Iacovelli said. "We looked at it in a different light because it also disrupted the community. So we gave them 10 hours of community service to help repair that damage."

On the CD, which was made off school grounds but sold by at least one student in school, the students spout off on anything from football games to how their cars fit their personalities, over some popular hip-hop beats.

Some of the students also rap about drinking alcohol: "Take shots of Jack and a glass of Absolut / When . . . we get together you know we gonna puke / If it's in a toilet or out the car door / It don't matter we just keep going back for more."

And their violent fantasies: "I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling as I think to myself I don't know what I'm feeling / I just wanna grab the Glock and cock it back / kill everyone here, how . . . is that."

However, it was the degrading comments about women at the high school that really caught the ears of school administrators, and apparently angered some parents.

". . . Why everyone think Johnston is so easy? Why all these girls gotta be so sleazy?"

Iacovelli said the lack of respect toward women was a major reason for the administration to push the students into sensitivity training.

"In light of the CD, I think the kids need some additional education to be more tolerant," Iacovelli said. "I think this really brings to light that parents are always telling their kids to turn the music down -- maybe they need to listen to the lyrics."

The CD started circulating around the school this week.

Iacovelli said an adminstrator at the high school got hold of a copy on Tuesday. Assistant Schools Supt. Kathryn Crowley picked it up at the high school and brought it back across Atwood Avenue to the School Department's administrative office.

When she played the CD, Iacovelli said, she immediately called high school administrators to her office and launched the investigation.

School Committee member Lorraine Natale, who hasn't heard the CD, said she had received several calls from concerned parents, and that she was told this week that 50 copies of the CD were sold.

"What I know is that the parents that contacted me are the parents of the young girls that are mentioned on the tape," Natale said. "They were very concerned about the graphic nature of the tape. I'm waiting for the superintendent to give us the report. I hear they are transcribing the tape."

Iacovelli said the final report should be ready Monday.

Meanwhile, there has been some accusations that school administrators wanted to keep the issue out of the public eye because the parents of two students are involved in school affairs.

Iacovelli, who received two complaints from parents, said that's not the case, "whatsoever."

"After I heard this CD, I immediately called the administration into my office. . . . I never even thought of putting it under the rug," she said. Each student is "getting the same discipline as anyone else. You have to treat every child the same."

"Kids do things that don't please parents," she added.

School Committee Vice Chairwoman Norma-Jean Pirri said she understood why the students were being suspended, but added that she believed the situation may have been dragged out by politics.

"While the mistake that the boys made was a mistake, the outrageous publicity on this matter was no doubt in my mind politically motivated," she said. "I believe that the punishment some of these boys received was more than what they deserved compared to the involvement they had in the CD, simply because of who they are."