John Jay High School is a public high school located in Cross River, New York. It is the only high school in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District. The school, which opened in 1956, is named after John Jay, a Founding father of the United States, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who lived nearby. Over the years, the school has been heavily criticized for its mascot, the Indians.HistoryThis school opened in the mid-1900s, having moved from its location in Katonah, which is now Katonah Elementary School, still part of the Katonah-Lewisboro School District.''Vagina Monologues'' censorship controversyJohn Jay briefly made national and international news in March 2007 when three students, Hannah Levinson, Megan Reback, and Elan Stahl, faced punishment after reading a poem from the play The Vagina Monologues at an Open Mic Night, an event open to the community. The extract included the word "vagina", and the girls had been asked to edit the word out because of the expected crowd which would include many young children. They said they would follow this order but then disobeyed (they underlined the word by saying it in unison). The school gave them a one-day suspension - not for what was said, but for their insubordination. The girls decided not to appeal their suspension. They agreed they had been insubordinate, but the incident was widely reported and the original order criticized as an act of censorship. Many students protested the punishment to no avail. However, many students also protested the media's portrayal of the situation, believing that the school had acted correctly and that the girls deserved to be punished for their insubordination, for they had previously agreed not to say the word. The play's author Eve Ensler gave the students her support and was invited by parents for a school visit. The suspension was put on hold while policies were reviewed and eventually rescinded.
