WOULD YOU LET THIS DUDE TEACH YOUR KIDS?

It’s good to know that Mike White’s character in School of Rock has a real-life counterpart.

There’s this 29 year-old dude in Stuggart, Germany. His name is Thomas Gurrath, and when he’s not calling himself “The Bloodbeast” and doing vocals for a death metal band called Debauchery, he’s training to be a teacher. I don’t know exactly how old the kids he’d be teaching are, but the subject is “politics, history and ethics,” so I think we can safely assume that the kids are at least at an age where they’re thinking about what it might feel like to touch naughty parts.

ANYWAY, this dude has now been told by the “regional education authorities” that unless he quits the band, his days as a teacher are numbered.

(WARNING: There are some NSFW photos after the jump. It’s a naked chickc covered in Karo syrup. So now you know exactly what you’re getting into by clicking through.)

Now, I don’t actually think Debauchery are a very good band – you can give them a listen here – but that’s obviously beside the point. Being told you can’t be a teacher because you’re in a death metal band is ridiculous. (There’s an easy joke to be made here at Germany’s expense, but I’ll let them slide this time since we’re not doing so hot with the proto-Fascism thing here in America, either. I’m looking at you, Arizona.)

That being said… Debauchery apparently bring naked chicks up on stage and smear them with fake blood, which is a little more questionable – because it very naturally brings up the whole question of whether or not simulated acts of violence against women are harmless fantasies or endorsements of misogyny. For whatever reason, I’m not offended by bands singing about these topics in a manner which is exaggerated (to put it mildly), like Cannibal Corpse or Pig Destroyer, but I think only talent-less d-bags need such the gimmick of re-producing said topics in a semi-realistic manner on-stage or in photos. (Remember the first time you ever heard of Oceano?)

Here’s a photo from one of the band’s shows:

But even if I think Debauchery are a silly band and I doubt that I would ever wanna, like, hang out with Gurrath, I’m still not entirely convinced that he should lose his teaching gig because of his extracurricular activities. I don’t have kids; maybe if I did, my feelings would be more concrete. But I think it’s a fine line between telling someone that their particular job has a particular set of responsibilities and they have to honor those, and repressing someone artistically just because you don’t like what they do and you’re in a position to stop it. Where is that line? If Gurrath did Francis Bacon-style paintings, would that be okay? What if he wrote pornographic stories under a pen name? I had a teacher in the seventh grade who played in a metal band and wrote under an alias for High Times, but that obviously had no effect on me whatsoever.

You can read more about the Gurrath debacle here. Debate the issue in the comments section. I’m really curious to hear what you all have to say about this – especially if you have children.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]