Halloween In Puyallup
By Hans Zeiger (10/27/04)
In kindergarten at Karshner Elementary School, I dressed up as George Washington for Halloween, complete with a paper-bag-and-cotton wig. In other years of my elementary education in the historic Mount Rainier valley town of Puyallup, Washington I was a ghost, a pirate, and the wearer of a shirt that read, “Official Halloween Costume.” Halloween at school brought classroom parties, festive arts and crafts, and hallway costume parades. The little girls who went as witches on those innocent Halloweens were never the subjects of administrative vitriol.
Puyallup is no longer so innocent. The Puyallup School District decided last week to ban Halloween in the schools.
When I first encountered the headline, I thought that the school district had decided with prudence to cancel the in-school celebration of an unimportant and frivolous holiday. Indeed, Halloween celebrations in my school days were squandered time.
In Protestant reflection, I would count Halloween a thorough perversion of October 31, the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg church. A Catholic may think it a worse perversion of All Hallows Eve. Halloween is a juvenile glorification of devilish imagery in an equally dark age when children ought to be taught to reflect on whatsoever things are pure.
In other words, I am not a fan of Halloween. I was ready to commend my school district and its superintendent for a decision well made.
But it was not solely with respect to the economical use of academic time, or at all to the Christian faith or to the cultivation of character, that the Puyallup Schools superintendent decided to ban Halloween. A reason stated by a district spokesperson is, “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 … We want to make sure our students are respectful of all religions and all cultures.” Other reasons for the ban included the fact that some families cannot afford to purchase costumes and that celebrations will consume classroom instructional opportunities.
Several months ago, the Puyallup Herald asked me in what direction I thought Dr. Tony Apostle, the new schools superintendent, ought to steer the district. I said that the district ought to emphasize character and work to move beyond the political correctness that had characterized the past few years.
In the aftermath of a several-million dollar racial bias lawsuit filed against the Puyallup School District in 1997 and concluded in 2001 came the implementation of an expensive Office of Diversity Affairs. Now, every action the district takes must be measured and regulated by the political correctness police and in that vile department.
Last December, I returned to Puyallup High School for the first time since graduation to discover that the administration had banned the display of class Christmas trees at the annual Alumni Assembly. For decades, students of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes had decorated Christmas trees to show forth their class pride. Now, political correctness has overwhelmed school tradition. I found, in the course of conversations with older alumni, that I was not the only one offended by the onslaught of the Office of Diversity Affairs and its vicious holiday code.
And now we must pay our respects to the local witches. Let us cancel one holiday to offend the Christians; let us cancel another to please the Wiccans.
I will not abide the bewitching of my town or its schools. My great grandparents moved here many years ago; my great grandfather taught science at Aylen Junior High School and my great grandmother taught kindergarten at Meeker Elementary. My grandfather, for whom an elementary school is named, spent 42 years in the district as a teacher and principal. My late grandmother was a school secretary. My mother is an elementary school teacher.
For an expert opinion on the pro-Wiccan cancellation of Halloween, I consulted my younger siblings. My fifth grade sister, who last dressed as a cowgirl for Halloween, is opposed to the decision. Her classmates, she said, “all think it’s not fair because they all want it.”
When I reminded little sister that Christian holidays have been removed from the schools to please atheists at the same time as Halloween has been prohibited in schools to appease Wiccans, she said, “It seems like witches are more important than Christians because [the school district is] honoring them.” Then, in an important warning to the district administration, she declared, “If they take out more holidays, I would want to be home schooled.”
As for me, I actually consider it a good development that Halloween is off the calendar in Puyallup. But political correctness is worse than Halloween, so we ought to be frightened.
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