Tuesday, December 08, 2009



Connecticut School Official Defends Ban on Christmas

We read:
"Happy Winter" just doesn't have the same ring as Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, but in one Connecticut elementary school, that's about all you'll see and hear this holiday season.

Erik Brown, principal of Walsh Elementary School in Waterbury, Conn., has reportedly banned all religious festivities and many decorations from the classroom since arriving at the school five years ago. Brown, who declined comment through a spokeswoman to FoxNews.com on Friday, explained to The Republican-American newspaper that state law mandates that a public school cannot knowingly exclude children.

"This is not a church," Brown told the paper. "It's a school and it's a public school. I have to do things that include every child. So what we do is celebrate winter."

Board of Education member John Theriault told the paper that many of Waterbury's 20 elementary schools display Christmas ornaments and allow Christmas parties. "I felt there was inequity," Theriault said. "If one school has Christmas parties for the kids, then others should too."

Brown told the paper that songs celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa will be sung during Walsh's "Winter Celebration" on Dec. 21, and as in previous years, presents will be given to students.

Source

It would establish a church if his school put up a Christmas tree? He has delusions of grandeur.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Celebrating Winter could be considered a Pagan holiday by many, so isn't THAT discrimination?

Anonymous said...

Not at all.

Anonymous said...

Uh, hello school district - xmas is a federal holiday. You can't celebrate a federal holiday?

Anonymous said...

sounds like this school would run better without BROWN. Stormewaters

Anonymous said...

They are simply following the PC agenda, which is, to remove God from America.

Anonymous said...

Oh to be a dictator, even in a small domain, and even if your subjects are mere children!

Well, Tan My Hide! said...

But he only celebrates winter according to a northern-hemisphere-centric schedule, when billions of people are still stuck in sunshine! Will this arrogant imperialism ever end? Will America acknowledge its calendrical shame? Can President Obama not even apologize for it?

Anonymous said...

TMH,

Thanks! I was trying to find a way to feel bad about my inclusiveness. You have saved me a lot of effort, and I can immediately feel ashamed...

pauldow said...

What's there to celebrate about winter in Connecticut? It's cold. The sky is gray most of the time. It's dark most of the day. We have a weather-maker called Long Island Sound to our south that doesn't put snow down; it puts slush down. We have the highest electric rates in the country. We have reformulated gas that reduces mileage along with one of the highest gas taxes in the country. And the worst thing of all is the legislative session starts the 1st week in Jan. so we can be sure of new tax increases to support the out of control spending that's caused a $470M budget deficit only 2 months into the two year budget cycle.

Anonymous said...

I don't recall Christmas trees mentioned anywhere in the Bible. To what religion is he refering?

Bobby said...

"I have to do things that include every child."

---No he doesn't, football doesn't include every child, the drama club doesn't include every child, there are lots of activities that don't include everyone yet the school supports financially.

Anonymous said...

He celebrates the traditions of the Druidic pagan belief system and systematically excludes all other religious expression. I would think that the Establishment Clause that they cling to so lovingly would expressly forbid that, wouldn't it? It is clearly an attempt to establish a pagan church right at school property.

Anonymous said...

Even if I could accept the logic behind this 'Christmas is discriminatory' thing, I could never understand the need of these people to create new and stupid alternatives. If celebrating Christmas is wrong don't celebrate! Period. Renaming things doesn't change anything but the name.

Big Don said...

In the United States Christmas is a federal holiday. Unless all the Christmas (mostly Christian haters)haters out there want the fact that it is a holiday changed they should just STFU.