The cast of the worldwide smash hit “High School Musical” has begun urging Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, to "stop delaying" Congressional hearings into whether a large number of American servicewomen who died in Iraq and Afghanistan have been falsely labeled as having committed suicide when their actual cause of death has been rape by fellow members of the U.S. military.

“High School Musical” star Zac Efron, 20, who became a household name after playing Troy Bolton in the TV movies and upcoming theater release, says he and fellow cast members have told begun to tell reporters on their recent European press tour for “High School Musical 3” how “deeply disturbed” they are by the unwillingness of Congress in general and House leader Nancy Pelosi in particular to “stop delaying” public Congressional hearings on this issue.

“High School Musical 3,” the third film in the hugely successful Disney series, opens in the U.S. on October 22.

“The patriotic American women who have chosen to serve in Iraq don’t deserve to have their families told they committed suicide when all of the available medical evidence clearly shows that they died in rape-related incidents,” Efron has told foreign media. “The brave and patriotic women currently serving in our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan need to have these hearings held immediately as a preventative measure against future harm.”

Added co-star Vanessa Anne Hudgens, age 19: “This one girl who died, Lavena Johnson, was the same age as me. And so I think that the minimal amount of respect due to these American servicewomen is to hold a Congressional hearing to determine how their lives really ended. To have their deaths falsely labeled as suicide when everyone knows that is blatantly untrue is a real slap in the face to patriotic Americans serving their country everywhere in the world, and to the rest of us back home who support them.”

Added Corbin Blue, age 19: “What is particularly disturbing is that as many as 20 American women serving in Iraq and elsewhere might have died from rape that was deliberately mislabeled as suicide. But instead of calling for hearings that might serve to stop the rapes, Pelosi and other members of Congress seem to have made the deliberate decision to put more women at risk by taking no action on the matter.”

Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Monique Coleman, Lucas Grabeel, Jemma McKenzie-Brown, and Corbin Bleu recently repeated their call for action when caught by the British press at the Floridita restaurant in London’s Soho district.

McKenzie-Brown urged fans to e-mail Congresswoman Pelosi at sf.nancy@mail.house.gov sf.nancy@mail.house.govsf.nancy@mail.house.gov and urge her to hold hearings immediately to prevent further harm to American servicewomen serving abroad.

“Or people in the U.S. can fax her at (202) 225-8259 in Washington D.C. or call her directly at 202-225-4965,” she said, passing out a card with the numbers to media members. “Speaking out against injustice is a really important thing to do, whatever your age, wherever you live, whatever your position in life.”

Efron and the others say the case of 19-year-old Lavena Johnson of Texas is particularly disturbing as she is the exact same age as they are. US Army Pvt. Johnson was found dead on a military base in Balad, Iraq, in July, 2005.

Johnson’s death was characterized by the U.S. Army to be suicide from a self-inflicted M-16 shot. But according to an article written by peace activist Col. Ann Wright, when her father, Dr. John Johnson, a medical doctor, finally received documentation about his daughter’s death and actual photos on a CD of her injuries, what he found was evidence not of suicide but of a brutal rape.

Writes Col. Wright:

“When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter's body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.

Johnson’s parents have spoken out in a number of recent radio interviews

http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/aug/20/what-happened-lavena-johnson
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/23/suicide_or_murder_three_years_after

Col. Wright, author of the award-winning “Voices of Conscience: Government Indisers Speak Out,” has been pleading for Congressional hearings on the topic since last January.

Wright, who was the highest ranked woman to resign from the State Dept. in protest of the U.S. attack on Iraq, says that of the 94 U.S. military women who died in Iraq or in OIF, the military claims that 36 died from non-combat related injuries, which included vehicle accidents, illness, death by "natural causes" and self-inflicted gunshot wounds, or suicide. The military has declared the deaths of the Navy women in Bahrain, which were killed by a third sailor, as homicides. Five deaths have been labeled as suicides, but 15 more deaths occurred under extremely suspicious circumstances.

Wright notes that eight women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas -- six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division -- have died of "noncombat related injuries" on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious "non-combat related injuries" on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as "suicides."

Wright received the State Department's Award for Heroism for her help evacuating 2,500 people from the civil Sierra Leone in 1997.

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Since its broadcast two years ago, “High School Musical” has become a massive global brand, spawning two sequels, sold-out concert tours, popular merchandise and thousands of school productions.

Says Efron: "The first time we realized what High School Musical had become was on the first international press tour. We went all through Europe and were meeting so many fans, kids who were very excited to tell us how much High School Musical had influenced their lives and how much they had connected with it. That was something none of us expected."

“High School Musical” is an Emmy Award-winning American television film. Upon its release on January 20, 2006, it became the most successful movie that Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) ever produced, with a television sequel “High School Musical 2” released in 2007, and the feature film “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” to be released theatrically in October 2008. It will be the first Disney Channel Original movie to have a theatrical sequel. “High School Musical” was Disney Channel's most watched movie at its time, with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US.

//Drew Barrymore