Area newspapers gave the record-burning front-page coverage. One reporter from the Los Angeles Times staged a photograph showing me hammering a John Denver album to pieces. The story made the event resemble Hitler’s book burning in Nazi Germany. Parents became alarmed by my tactics and phoned the school: "What’s going on over there? Are you fanatics trying to brainwash our children?" Some parents even threatened to remove their children from the school...

Despite the unexpected setbacks, I was still certain that I was right. The negative influence of rock music continued to crop up in counseling sessions with my students. Time after time, I saw actions patterned after the immoral behavior of rock stars. Students showed allegiance by the vocabulary they used, the song and album titles printed on their book jackets, the posters they hung on their walls, the music they listened to in their cars, and the clothes they wore. They were hooked!