Posted on 10/21/2004 8:14:41 AM PDT by microgood
PUYALLUP - "Let them have their 30-minutes of dressing goofy and having candy," said Silas Macon on the grounds of Puyallup's Maplewood Elementary School Wednesday afternoon.
He'd just learned the grade school tradition of a party and parade in costume during the last half-hour of class before Halloween night won't happen this year in the Puyallup School District for his two daughters.
The superintendent has cancelled all Halloween activities.
A letter sent home to parents Wednesday states there will be no observance of Halloween in the entire school district.
"We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," explained Puyallup School District spokesperson Karen Hansen.
Hansen says the superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. In addition some families can't afford costumes.
It's the third reason some Puyallup parents are struggling with.
The district says Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.
"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," said Hansen.
The Wiccan, or Pagan, religion is growing in the U.S. and there are Wiccan groups in Puyallup.
Number eight on the district's guidelines related to holidays and celebrations reads as follows: "Use of derogatory stereotypes is prohibited, such as the traditional image of a witch, which is offensive to members of the Wiccan religion."
"I do lots of things that are not revolving around wearing a black outfit and stirring a cauldron," said Wiccan Priestess Cheryl Sulyma-Masson in an interview with ABC News where she explained that Wiccans (or Pagan Clergy) celebrate nature, not Satan.
A Puyallup School District internal email dating from October 2000 warns that "the Wiccan religion is a bona fide religion under the law, and its followers are entitled to all the protections afforded more mainstream religions. Building administrators should not tolerate such inappropriate stereotyping (images such as Witches on flying brooms, stirring cauldrons, casting spells, or with long noses and pointed hats) and instead address them as you would hurtful stereotypes of any other minority."
2004, however, is the first year that the superintendent decided to cite that concern, along with loss of classroom study time and protection for students who can't afford costumes, as motivation for canceling in-school Halloween activities.
"They're so worried about being politically correct anymore that we're not allowed to do much of anything," said parent Tonya Reynolds whose daughter attends Maplewood Elementary.
"If you don't want costumes call it a harvest party. We don't have to take out complete Halloween. We could still do something for our children," said parent Loni Andrews who promises to challenge the ruling at the next school board meeting.
"Yeah it does bother me because I would really like to go around and dress up," said Maplewood 6th grader Grace Macon.
"I think it's terrible," added Silas Macon. "I think it just kind of takes away from the little stuff they get to do that's fun at school."
"It's a little bit of both," said Hansen of the study time and religious reasons for canceling Halloween activities. "I don't think you can balance respect with instructional time and we would always be looking to do both. We want to make sure our students are respectful of all religions and all cultures.
Hansen also said that the PTA and teachers have been notified that they can hold parties or other Halloween events after the school day is over. Classroom time, however, will not be used for Halloween celebrations. Hansen says concerns about other holidays and parties held in school will be decided on a case by case basis.
And this is where they started going to the dark side. Political correctness is looney, and this is the clearest example yet. Now from this you and I could start a religion that disfavored homework, and the good school officials would move to end homework. They have no brains left in this district. (Oh, and who are they voting for? Kerry of course.)
"The Goblins have already contacted the ACLU for your slander of saying that they don't exist!"
Teresa-is that you???
LOL!
Nahhh... I don't like Gin with Raisins.
Good for you!! I am SO glad my daughter is grown and away from this mess! I would be doing the same thing -- either that or have her in private school or home school. This is insanity!
How come my sister-in-law's Catholic school doesn't go through the grief some public schools put their students through at testing time?
Her school has the hightest test scores in the diocese, and 60 out of 66 8th grade students were accepted at good prep schools in the area last year, and it's not all gloom and doom in her school either. There is actually time for recess and Christmas and other holiday parties.
There is no prep time for tests in her school, no threatening students with being left back, no threatening students that their school will be taken over by the state and teachers will lose their jobs if the students don't do well, and no threatening that property values will go down.
Many parents in the public schools are pulling their kids out in droves and sending them to the private and parochial schools in the area because the public schools have been delivering an inferior education for years, and now, all of a sudden, the pressure is on. Too bad. Who needs it?
My daughter is mildy autistc and needs to be with other kids... and there simply ISN'T a private shool anywhere in the area.
So I get in their face, volunteer a lot and am un-cowed!
I, for one, do and never allowed my daughter to take part. What we did instead was take the day off and spend it together. Some of our best memories are from these days. Then one year, I received a letter from the district saying that too many parents were doing that and our children would not receive an "excused" absence and the children could sit together in a study hall while the rest of the school partied and paraded. Incensed, I wrote them a letter and said that although I had disapproved of what they were doing, I had never once tried to stop the other children from doing what they wanted to do. But the school had better not try and force me to put my child into study hall all day. If they continued, I would have to take action that would affect all the children. I didn't hear anything more. We continued our practice and they continued theirs. It just never occurred to me that a school would discontinue the practice out of respect for witches. Yuck! What is becoming of our nation?
No Harry Potter books in this library, eh?
Goblins don't exist?! Damn. (Disappointingly putting away +5 vorpal sword...)
those people that hate Christians have taken every reference of our Lord out of the schools....
we can't pray...
we can't call Christmas "Christmas"...
Easter doesn't even exist...
they give any bible-reading groups trouble whenever they can...
Halloween is basically a tribute to witches, warlocks, terror, hell, death, murder, and satanists....
so if we can't talk about Christianity, why are we promoting Satanists and witches?
Guess they don't remember: "All work and no play, makes for a mindless drone."
Thanks to the internet, this story will be all over the world in a few hours and the Puyallup school district will be the utter laughingstock of the entire planet. It will be characterized as another hysterical PC overreaction and as such will serve to drive another stake in the coffin of PC.
Do too! They are all in my computer!
As Christians we don't participate in Halloween activities either. My older boys (now in their 20's) attended Lutheran school in their elementary years and they did not observe Halloween in any shape or form. In fact, Halloween day was their class "picture" day so everyone came in every year dressed up for the photos.
Now, all these years later, the Lord gave us a later in life surprise who is now 6 years old and in 1st grade. No good Lutheran schools left nowadays in our area, and the only good Christian schools are not affliated with any supporting churches so they are out of our range financially. So, he now attends Catholic school. Overall I think it's a good school and I am happy that they don't have a halloween party and dress in costume during school hours but they do have a halloween party in the evening (or in the case this year on the weekend) which of course all the students are invited to attend. My son has no problem in not going, but we can't escape all the halloween activities (arts and crafts, games, stories read, etc.) they participate in for the month of October. SIGH.....
Oh well, God is still on the throne and I worry not. I just cringed at the sight of a school being so caring about the feelings of witches and wiccans while the children of Christians who prefer not to have their children involved in Halloween activities have had no choice. This article truly is indicative of the times. Guess the principal and/or board would be preferring Kerry this election!
Good for you! Keep up the good fight!
What can i say.
It's important to have a hobby!
:-)
"The district says Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to REAL WITCHES."
Umm, are they living in Salem? Real WITCHES?
I cannot tell you how envious I am! My daughter, now 19, does like Halloween and does celebrate it. I'm not crazy about it, but she does not yet see any problem with it. She is careful not to dress up as anything evil, thankfully. But she does not look back on her halloweenless life as a loss either and that's because we used the day to have so much fun. Which I think is the key. Had she been made to sit in a study hall, she would look at things differently, I'm sure. We sent her to a Christian school and you're right, they're not cheap. I wouldn't hesitate to consider sending a child to Catholic school after I had investigated it first. Sounds like that first grader of yours has it made--loving parents and more than one big brother who probably adore him!
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