Summer Heights High Says Sorry

Local News, By burgjo, 21st September, 2007

It was an unfortunate co-incidence, but that didn’t stop the parents of a woman who died after taking a party drug walking away from their TV in disgust while watching Wednesday’s episode of the ABC’s hit show Summer Heights High. The episode featured a storyline about the ecstasy death of a blonde student with the same name.

The ABC will make a public apology to Peter and Alison Catt, the parents of Elanora Heights dance teacher Annabel who died in February after Good Vibrations Festival.

In a statement issued yesterday – the ABC has agreed to end next week’s program with a message to the local family, but the broadcaster is refusing to pull the the remaining shows that continue the storyline of beautiful blonde teenager “Annabel Dickson”, given that they were filmed before she had even died.

A photo of the character, which even looks like Annabel, was used in the episode, with drama teacher Mr G using the death as fodder for a school musical promoted as “One girl, one pill, one hell of a night.”

It included songs with the lyrics, “She’s a party girl with a bad habit for drugs… when girls take drugs and then they die, who would have thought at Summer Heights High.”

Mr and Mrs Catt said the episode had caused their family enormous distress and they had called on the ABC to pull future episodes of the series which continue the ecstasy death storyline.

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