School cancels Halloween celebrations as disrespectful

[Nihilistic Seraph]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=184701&page=1

The basic story goes kinda like this - a school in recognition of the full religion status of Wicca, decided to cancel the school Halloween celebrations listing not wanting the stereotyped view of witches to offend actual witches (keep in mind though that this is the 3rd of 3 reasons to cancel the school party).

Honestly, I'm kinda conflicted on this. While I'm quite happy that schools are seeing the image of the old green-skinned woman as offensive and stereotypical, Halloween itself is a pagan religion. Could the practitioners simply grow a thicker skin, or simply have a note sent home regarding the image?

Especially seeing as I plan on dressing up as Jesus next Halloween, I really can't complain about the costumed, and really find them to be a part of our culture now.

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble, so discuss please.  

[MaddLlama]

This is simply the logical extension of the PC madness going on. I think it's all a bit redonkulous.  

[Azana Brown]

MaddLlama

This is simply the logical extension of the PC madness going on. I think it's all a bit redonkulous.

Quoted for truth. Perhaps, if you were to speak with the pagan community in your school, and form some sort of informal petition saying "We really don't mind", they would feel okay with having the festivities.  

[Starlock]

This sort of thing is in the minority of occurences so I am not too concerned about this going on. I think they could make a distinction though between the secular Halloween versus the modern Pagan celebration of Halloween (often called Samhain) just as one can make a distinction between secular and religious Christmas.

The stereotype Witches don't really bother me that much and in some ways I'm not sure Wiccans or modern Witches have any right to complain; they chose to use a label that identifies with that image. We could have chosen something with more positive connotations but instead many have the notion of 'reclaiming' the label "Witch" to mean something more positive. It should be an expectation that old stereotypes will endure for quite some time.  

[Winter Black]

I think this is ridiculous. I'm a Witch, and images like the Wicked Witch of the West don't bother me at all. In fact, I'm quite used to them, and when I was a little girl, my mom and I both dressed up in the stereotypical "witch" costumes. We still have them, somwhere. Well, we were sans green make-up. But I'm usually sans make-up.
Its silly to think that anyone in the Pagan community, especially those who practice witchcraft, could ever possibly be offended by the old Witch stereotypes. If so, they must be closed minded, and doesn't that defeat the purpose of Paganism in some way?
That would be like hicks getting offended every time they saw The Beverly Hillbillies, you know? Nowadays the green witch stereotype is used more for humor, I find, than in seriousness. So why get offended at a joke? I always believed that if you can't laugh at yourself, you have no right to laugh at other people.
So, why get offended at something like that, when you laugh at the stereotpes about Catholicism, Christianity, and Judaism? Or even just jokes about people in general?
I dunno. It seems ridiculous to me.  

[deathcomes_onsilentwings]

That's kind of stupid. I'm glad they're trying to help out the Pagan and Wiccan groups and get them more respect and less discrimination in the community, but come on! It's Halloween! Kids dress up to have fun. It shouldn't matter what they dress up as, as long as it's not purposefully used as a direct insult to somebody. And dressing up as the standard Halloween witch isn't really insulting anybody, is it?  

[Heterosexual Fa gg ot]

I'd seriously cry if my school cancelled holloween. My last school did because it was a Catholic school and they made a big announcement about how Holloween is the "Devils work" and that only "The Devils workers such as Pagans worship that horid holiday" I am an Atheist that enjoys researching and possibly experimenting with other Religions. Most of my friends are however Wiccan and I walked right out of the school with them last year when the school did that xD

PS: Love the idea for going as Jesus.

[.Julie Booly.]

 

[blindfaith^_^]

You know, I really don't find the green skin and pointy hat offensive. It is so far from the truth that its comical, besides witches are potrayed so many ways by media that people shouldn't be offended. UInless of course they are equally miffed by charmed, bewitched, the craft, Sabrina, Buffy, and so on. Just like other religions get poked fun at Wicca and other pagan religions should deal a little.

Besides instead of cancelling the Halloween party, the school could have done so much more by having it and opening it up as a chance to inform students on different ways to celebrate Halloween, much like they do with "winter parties" where we talk about different holidays around the world.