Puyallup schools ban Halloween festivities (WA State)

[icymist]

Friday, October 22, 2004

Puyallup schools ban Halloween festivities

By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

There will be no kiddie costume parade, no classroom candy handouts this year in Puyallup's public schools.

The district put the kibosh on all Halloween festivities during school hours, enforcing a policy that's been in place for several years but is being applied for the first time to Oct. 31 celebrations.

District officials say the ban is largely a matter of religious sensitivity -- to Wiccans.

Assistant Superintendent Tony Apostle advised Puyallup principals in a memo last week that Halloween costumes and parties are now banned. Pumpkins and cornstalks are fine, he said, but witches, black cats or "similar decorations that are intended to frighten or scare individuals" are not.

<snip>

Pete Davis, pastor of Aquarian Tabernacle Church in tiny Index, west of Stevens Pass, suggests that the ban is a thinly veiled attempt to banish a holiday seen by some Christians as an evil festival.

More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/196371_spookban22.html

[sandnsea]

1. Leave the terrorizing to George n/t

[Inland]

2. Well, I am sympathetic to making the little monkeys study

They can wait on the candy.

[Bridget Burke]

4. Only one of the district's schools actually had a parade.

It looks like observations were minimal in the others.

The full article did not mention any actual Wiccans who'd been bothered by the holiday.

[aquart]

3. Know anybody scared of a witch or a black cat?

EXCEPT a Fundie?

By the way, do they plan to give up their Christmas trees? Mistletoe? Easter eggs? And other pagan symbols and customs?

Just asking.