ARS on Twitter
RSS
Don’t Invite Santa To Your Dance
Posted by Raven on December 24th, 2004
By ANDREW CLINE
Editorial Page EditorOF ALL THE sapheaded excuses we have heard for expelling Christmas from a public school, the lamest came from right here in New Hampshire last week. At Hampton Academy Junior High, a seventh-grade student was refused entry to the holiday dance when he arrived in a Santa Claus costume. The reason? Allowing him in would be unconstitutional.
Principal Fred Muscara was quoted in the Hampton Union as saying, “It was a holiday party. It was not a Christmas party. There is a separation of church and state. We have a lot of students that go to Hampton Academy Junior High that have different religions. We have to be sensitive to that.”
Thomas Jefferson would be dumbfounded to hear that a school principal believes that a seventh-grader attending a school dance while dressed as Santa Claus constitutes the establishment of an official state religion by the federal government.
Given the poor state of historical and political literacy these days, Principal Muscara’s explanation, as stupefying as it is, is less shocking than the excuses given by SAU 21 Superintendent James Gaylord and Hampton School Board Chairman Nancy Serpis. They both said a Santa costume was “inappropriate” for a holiday dance. They did not say when a Santa costume would be appropriate. Presumably at any time other than “the holidays” (previously known as Christmas).
This type of outrageous trampling of individual rights on the part of public schools has got to stop. Perhaps a sane public interest law firm such as the Institute for Justice can draw up a legal primer for school administrators that explains exactly what the First Amendment says on religion and why it is not unconstitutional for a child to dress as Santa at a school dance. And perhaps school administrators could lighten up and let kids be kids. Is it not part of their job to kindle creativity and self-expression instead of stamping it out?
Another article from the Boston Herald
[My note: What is next? Santa's in the malls? What about one of NH's most famous attractions-Santa's Village?
Or worse, some people will soon become "offended" by Christmas lights on people's homes...]
