The last report I heard in Amherst yesterday was that some First Amendment advocates were hoping to stage the production even after its cancellation by the high school. They will have to find a director, since Amherst Regional High School's musical director is already booked for the season, orchestrating "Crazy for You" in place of "West Side Story."

But whether these counter-activists are successful is beside the point. The administration of Amherst Regional High School has taught its students an inadvertent but incredibly damaging lesson in this controversy--that protest, in the absence of explanation or discussion, can prevent free expression, performance and education.

Think of the benefit the community would have gained from a high school performance of the musical, followed (or preceded, or both) by vigorous discussion and debate over the origin of the story, its influences and the aims of its creators. Dickinson once wrote in her poem "The Show": "The show is not the show,/But they that go./Menagerie to me/My neighbor be./Fair play--Both went to see." The great poet could not have imagined these neighbors, and sadly, there will be no "West Side" show to see in Amherst this winter.

Susannah B. Tobin '00 is a classics concentrator in Lowell House. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.