
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 13, 1995                   TAG: 9510130064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Medium

PC SCHOOL POLICY BANS HALLOWEEN

There will be no Halloween parade in the schoolyard this year. No 9-year-old witches haunting the halls. No jack-o'-lanterns colored by earnest first-graders. Unless they're offered a non-satanic alternative.

Halloween has been banned from the Los Altos schools to comply with the policy that already bans Christmas carols, Hanukkah songs and Easter eggs. The future also looks doubtful for those paper dragons used to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Some parents in the wealthy community overlooking Silicon Valley see the no-Halloween policy as political correctness gone mad.

Patrick Ferrell's 7-year-old daughter came home from school and said the teacher told them ``the Halloween parade would feed the devil'' - or, at least, that's how she understood it, he said Thursday.

``She's confused. I'm confused,'' Ferrell said. ``We sanitize our schools and then wonder why our kids come out politically corrected, with less of a sense of identity, of values. It's a damn shame.''

But the School Board president, Phil Faillace, who informed parents of the rule, sees it as just the opposite. The board discussed it at the Oct. 2 meeting and interpreted the holiday policy to include Halloween.

``We're restoring values to the schools,'' Faillace said. ``We're saying the value is in understanding and learning about a variety of beliefs about religious issues, not just one side.''

Since January, Faillace said, the board has examined the curriculum to eliminate practices that appear to favor any one belief. Some devout Christian families see Halloween as a satanic holiday and complained that their children were forced to participate in the celebration.

``The board has to acknowledge Halloween's roots in Druid ceremonies and in a Celtic festival for Samhain, the Celts' god of the dead,'' Faillace said in the school bulletin.

The policy means no Halloween parties on school time and no parades. Teachers can hand out coloring pages with jack-o'-lanterns on them, but they must have alternatives such as faceless pumpkins, too.

by CNB