CAPE ELIZABETH – A student-written satire that was to have been performed last Friday and Saturday nights at Cape Elizabeth High School was canceled hours before its premiere by Principal Jeffrey Shedd, who cited concern that its subject matter, the December suspension of nine students for selling or consuming cookies laced with marijuana, would “send an incredibly mixed message” to the community.

“Although I make many mistakes as Principal, one of the things I take some pride in is in being very, very public about issues of substance use and abuse in this community,” wrote Shedd in a Friday morning email to parents. “My efforts throughout my tenure here as Principal has been to pick up the rug and sweep into public view this issue in its entirety.”

However, Shedd wrote, “the play, with no harmful intentions on anyone’s part, takes an approach to this issue that I believe will send an incredibly mixed message about this issue and will be harmful to some.”

The play deals with an issue that occurred Dec. 7 when a sophomore at the high school went to the school nurse to complain of feeling ill. As it turned out, the student had eaten a cookie laced with marijuana. After a police investigation, three students, ages 15-17, were arrested Dec. 19 for selling the cookies, while eight others were summonsed for possession of marijuana.

Although school policy calls for an automatic expulsion for drug trafficking, the school board never held such a hearing. In April, Superintendent Meredith Nadeau suggested the students left the school, negating the need for a hearing. Nadeau said a comparison of December enrollment to January would show a telling decrease.

“Sometimes,” she said, “parents have to make decisions that they feel are right for themselves and their families.”

On the day of the incident, upperclassmen were conducting a first-in-the-state, daylong TEDx video seminar, featuring motivational speeches centered on the mission statement of Cape schools “Open Minds and Open Doors” and designed to help students “expand their horizons as they look toward planning their lives beyond high school.”

Reportedly, the student satire was titled “Shedd-X,” a pun on the TEDx event.

Shedd said Friday afternoon that he decided to shut down the play on Wednesday, the day he first learned of its content. However, he waited to make an official decision until after viewing a run-through of the production Thursday evening.

Asked by the 50-odd students involved in the play if it could go on with revision, Shedd initially said he would consider it. However, even though students reportedly worked though the night on a new draft, Shedd announced Friday morning the show would not go on.

“The reality was, honestly, that I think there just wasn’t enough time to do it justice,” he said in a Friday afternoon telephone interview. “If there had been more time, maybe, but the reality is that the school year is ending and it just couldn’t be pulled off to my satisfaction.”

Shedd declined to elaborate on exactly what in the play hit too close to the bone.

“The letter really describes it in about as much detail as I’d want to go into, honestly,” he said.

“One thing I’m confident of is that the students involved in this absolutely meant no harm,” said Shedd. “I wouldn’t say it glorified [drug use]. I don’t think it did that. But there was concern that it was a satire and the nature of satire is that you poke fun at things, you make light of things. It was more that than glorifying it. I think even saying it suggested drug use is overstating what I would say. I would stick to what I have in my letter.”

The letter only speaks to the play’s “mixed message” and concern it “could be harmful to some.”

Beyond that, Shedd’s letter praised students and denied that the cancellation had anything to do with their depiction of his actions during the cookie incident.

“There was much good humor in the play,” he wrote to parents. “There was a skillful, funny portrayal of the person in the school I never mind having made fun of: Me. There is certainly much material for satire in my role as Principal!

“I have never before had any issues with any plays staged here or at any other schools where I have worked, even where they are edgy and controversial,” he wrote.

According to Shedd, “There’s been a tradition, not a long-standing tradition, but for the last few years in a row, of a year-end satire of things that have happened over the year at Cape Elizabeth High School.” The show is the product “of a group who works in theater actively,” although not necessarily a project of the school’s theater program, or the senior class, said Shedd.

“It’s just an annual spring show that the public is invited to,” he said.

However, that will not be the case this year.

“I know this decision will engender lots of reaction and discussion,” wrote Shedd, in his email to parents. “I know much of it will be directed my way. Perhaps some good will come out of this discussion. I want you at least to understand my position.”

Neither the high school theater teacher, Richard Mullen, nor any students involved in the production could be reached for comment before The Current’s deadline.