The drama club at Marysville-Pilchuck High School performed a play, as do many high school drama teams. But this high school is the place where a student recently shot five of his friends during a lunch hour, then killed himself.

The drama group had finished the last rehearsal for the play just before the tragedy occurred. The play contained violence. After the shooting, the group decided the portrayal of violence would remind too many students of the event which tore apart their world.

So they rewrote the script to take out all references to violence. It was voluntary, of course, a recognition that even simulated violence can overwhelm.

Admittedly, the events at the high school are not common. Yet they are becoming more common. And those of us not directly affected by an incident see it in the news and experience it vicariously.

Who knows how far voluntary boycotts of violent entertainment might curtail the current rise in violence itself?