By Chris Segien
Staff Writer

When the sports announcements suddenly ended on Friday, November 13, many at WA thought that it was part of the joke that Seniors Cam Close and Jon Schiavone were pulling as part of their segment . But the truth was, their skit was censored and cut out.

Sports anchors Close and Schiavone were mixing a collection of ingredients together in a pot, and were right about to pull something out, when the announcements abruptly ended. The stunt ended with Close and Schiavone pulling a baby out of the pot. While it may seem like a harmless gesture done for comic relief, it was not approved to air.

WABC advisors Elaine Pietras and Mark Miller (both declined for comment) thought that a comment made during the sports broadcast may be offensive to some people, and passed it on to administration. Deans Bob Ware and Mike Parent made the final call to cut the clip out of the video.

Parent thinks that the comment was not that bad, calling it “semi-inappropriate”, but may be perceived in a negative way by a certain group at the school. He has a respect for the hard work that Close and Schiavone put into the announcements, and harbors no negative thoughts towards them. He also said that with the prerecording method, “…we have a good procedure in place.”

Talking with Close, there is a lot of confusion as to why the clip was deleted. He was told that the actions were offensive to childbirth. Close says that the sports do not have much to do with sports, but are for mere comic relief. He was upset when he watched the announcements, since he did not know that the clip would be thrown out.

Parent talked with Close and Schiavone afterwords, and explained to them where they were coming from in cutting the clip out. There was a somewhat mutual agreement made between both sides, and they tried to settle their differences.

Upon further questioning, Parent and Close did not want to elaborate on what was said. Senior Brandon Casperson, who was an anchor on the announcements when the incident happened, said that he believes the comment that was in question was “WA Sports – makin’ babies!”