CLAWSON, Mich. – Parents of Clawson Middle School and Avondale School District students are furious after their children were solicited after an anti-bullying performance during school last month.
Deborah Mulherrin's daughter, Emma, is a seventh grader at Clawson Middle School, and was at the anti-bullying performance last month when she was asked for her personal information.
"Your name, phone number, email and possibly address," Emma said.
Students were told they could enter a raffle contest to win a gift card. Instead, parents said their children started receiving phone calls saying they'd won a chance to audition for a television show.
"It's an anti-bullying skit that they were there to do," Mulherrin said. "What are they turning around and doing? They're doing the bullying themselves."
Students' information was passed along to a company that claims it can get people into the movie business.
The Jewish Ensemble Theater put on the performance. They were funded by the Studios at Michigan for close to $1,200. The JET said they had no idea the students were solicited.
"When they're giving us this money to say, 'Go in to do this show,' they're not telling me what's happening before or after," they said. "We are paid to do the show."
The Studios at Michigan didn't return multiple calls for comment. Their office was closed when Local 4 visited.
"Makes us feel kind of violated, kind of victimized in a sense," James Schwarz, superintendent of the Avondale School District, said. "It was shady."
"They could take that information and sell it to another company," Mulherrin said. "When is it going to end? You don't know, and that's the scary part."