SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A UC San Diego Student is petitioning the university to stop teaching a Woody Allen film class.
“I think it (sends) a bad message to survivors,” said Savanah Lyon, the 23-year-old theatre major who started the petition. “It puts someone up on a pedestal who doesn’t deserve to be on a pedestal.”
Allen is fighting a public firestorm for accusations made by Dylan Farrow, claiming Allen sexually abused and molested her when she was seven-years-old.
Lyon said her problem is with both the director and his work.
“His newest movie involves a 15-year-old girl and a middle-aged man,” she said. “As a theatre department (UC San Diego says) they’re steps ahead, they want to speak out against social justice, but this goes against the very nature of it.”
Lyon has collected more than 10,000 signatures for the petition online, and she plans to print it and bring it to the Theatre department on Thursday.
She understands there is no guarantee that the university will take any action.
The professor who teaches the class declined to comment. In an emailed statement the University said:
"UC San Diego has received requests to cease offering “The Films of Woody Allen” class and a student has launched a petition in support of this effort. The university’s Academic Senate, which oversees curriculum on campus, is currently reviewing this request."
