Poor lesson: Teacher shows bootlegged ‘Shrek’

updated 9:59 p.m. ET June 21, 2007

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. - He doesn’t want to be an ogre about it, but the father of a fifth-grader thinks teachers are wasting time when they show movies in class — and if the film is a bootleg, he says, “That’s a really terrible lesson.”

Tim Trewhella, 46, said his 10-year-old daughter reported that her class watched the animated movie “Shrek the Third” on Tuesday and recognized it as the fairy-tale hit still showing in theaters.

“A friend hooked me up with it,” teacher Lovell Quiroz said, according to the girl.

Peekskill schools Superintendent Judith Johnson issued a statement saying administrative approval is required before a video is shown in elementary school and “if a pirated video was shown it is in violation of district policy.” An investigation was under way, the statement said.

An attempt to meet with Quiroz at the school was foiled by a security guard who ordered a reporter off school property.

The Motion Picture Association of America says major American movie studios lost $6.1 billion to piracy in 2005, 20 percent of that in the U.S.

“I don’t want to see the guy hung for this,” Trewhella said. “I would just like him to apologize.”

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Trewhella also says that what really bothers him is how often teachers show non-educational videos in class, bootleg or not.

“I run a candy and toy store,” said Trewhella. “I completely understand about entertaining kids. But it has its time and place.”

He said going public “might be making this unpleasant for the school district. But as a taxpayer and a parent, I don’t want my dollars going for movies. It’s the teacher’s job to make the educational stuff interesting.”

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