Build a Wiccan Altar? Not in My Shop Class, Teacher Says

I agree that if the Christian kids aren't allowed to make crucifixes and such during class, then the Wiccan kid shouldn't be able to make his altar either. HOWEVER, I don't think the teacher is basing this solely on what is fair, but on his own prejudices. I think he's going out of his way to discriminate against this student, and would find ways to do so even if the kid stays within the limits of what's acceptable at school.

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LS - It has never actually been confirmed that the teacher actually did previously deny a student from building a cross. There has been no verification that the teacher actually did so previously. The teacher has absolutely no authority to set policy within the school system. If the teacher had actually denied another student from making a cross, he was just as wrong in the first case as he was in the second.

The teacher would not be fired for allowing a student to bring a bible to class. Students are allowed to bring religious books and attire with them to school. This is clearly laid out in state and federal law as well as school policy. The teacher is unequivocally in the wrong in the current case, and in the original case of the student with the cross if that incident did indeed happen. The fact that the student or the student's parents did not make issue of the earlier breech of law and school policy makes the behaviour no more acceptable.

FTP
Founder, www.thewicca.ca

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School is supposed to be a religion free zone. Not any one religion in particular, all of them. I agree with the teacher.

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There is freedom of religion in this country. And how is Wicca scary or bad for our kids? Would it be because he knows nothing of the religion? Granted that there are kids that get involved w/ the dark side of things. But if people would educate themselves about Wicca as much as they're educate themselves about Christianity, it wouldn't be scary at all to anyone.

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Here we go again with people being afraid of what they don't know. I'm a pagan and a practicing Witch. There is nothing evil about what I do. I don't sacrafice animals let alone people. By doing what I do I become closer to the Earth which is slowly starting to slip away from us. Where I go to school there are kids who walk around with crosses on their necks or other symbols or Christian faith.

They are allowed to do what they do so why can't we? People are afraid of what they don't know. If you were to look at me you would see a straight A student, athletic and all around a good person. What would change once you learned I was a witch?

This boy was making an altar. Would the teacher had said anything about it if the boy had told him it was just a table?

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As a high school student and a proud pagan, I completely disagree with the whole alarmist treatment of bringing books of religious value to class. What a student reads is his or her own business, and is not and should not be the concern of the teacher if the student isn't pushing it on other students. To say that you cannot bring a bible or a book on wicca to class is, I believe, an infringement on our rights to learn about and read what we wish. It makes me sick when people attempt to discourage reading and learning about things. Even if it is the bible/a book on wicca.

Oh, and to all the bible bangers posting on here, I'm asking you respectively to knock it off. It's rather insulting to hear you practically call our paths useless. Not cool people. Really not cool.

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That's a bunch of bull. This man obviously knows NOTHING about wicca. It's not evil or dark, quite the contrary.

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He should have stuck with his original plan to not allow any religious symbols in the class and left it at that. None of this would have come to issue if that policy had just been enforced. No one needed to bring their on beliefs or opinions into it. However, the school is right in defending freedom of religion. And the term "witchcraft" clearly has negative connotations; so these students/families would not want "Judaism" or "Hindu" "practiced" in their schools either? What they're calling "witchcraft" is actually that student's belief system/prayer.

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Ignorance is fear. Society forces Chritianity down our throats. Everyone is familiar with the christian religions, however, how many christians are familiar with other religions beside their own righteous one. I have been a practicing Witchcraft for 10 yrs. I raised 3 very loving,generous and well rounded children....AS CHRISTIANS. At their fathers request, my children were exposed to both religions. They are better people because of it. Before you open your ignorant lips, learn about what your talking about. If you knew what you were saying you might sound intelligent instead of like a frightened pompus ass. Oh and by the way, be careful, I might turn you into a toad.

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I really do think that the kid should have been able to build his cross and the other, his altar. No, he probably shouldn't have been bringing a book about witchcraft to the classroom if it bothered the teacher so much, but some people don't realize that something as harmless as a book could bother someone so much. Mr. Halferty really screwed up on the way he described Wicca, or the way he thought of it. I know devout Christians and Catholics who are just teenagers and believe strongly in their religion, yet so nothing wrong with any one else's religion, including Wicca. Why can't everyone just be accepting of one another?

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You "Christians" as so many of you put it practice your damn religion everyday when you stand up and force the children in the classroom to stand up and recite a mindless pledge to a country that wouldn't know "Liberty and Justice for All" if Lady Liberty herself reached down and smacked you in the back of your head with her damn torch! I am a Proud Wiccan and I am raising 3 very equally Proud girls in this world to stand up for what they believe in and fight to protect ALL rights, not just the ones that the mainstream says are ok to keep! A Wiccan altar should be 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet. It looks like a table. The cross on the other hand is a religious symbol and SHOULD be allowed to be made in shop class to demonstrate how to do the wood working. It should not however be placed on display for all to see within the school unless you allow the child who created the Wiccan altar to also decorate his altar appropriately and then display it next to the cross. This world would be SO much better if we'd all practice what we claim to preach! An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will or to put it in terms those of you who are "christians" would understand Do unto others as you would have done unto you! BLESSED BE!

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i think the teacher was partially right in that the seperation line between church and state is getting noticeably thinner,but technically wrong to prevent such projects.i am a witch and see no wrong in building a cross or an altar on school ground workshops as it is the students own creative expressions and no one elses business.i think he was well intended but should not have put his five cents in on the matter.our kids are our future and to tangle them up in our adult bs is not good.

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Ok, lets not forget what the original theme was started from. A school teacher who's job is to teach a student how to construct and correctly make an object, NO MATTER what was made but that it is made correctly..

This USA is a melting pot of many beliefs, cultures, races and religions. It is not our right to judge someone on any of those grounds but to accept that not everyone is the same. Those students are in that classroom to accomplish a set task by the teacher, lets stop putting up guidelines of what they CANT make and open their minds to be as CREATIVE as possible.

As a mother and eclectic witch, I am a firm believer of teaching my son to open his mind to all religions and study them for him self. So that he is able to make his own decision. We are proud of the blood that runs though our veins that is a mixed culture. So before ya start praying for me, why wont you pray that Jesus Christ will have pity on your soul for being a selfish, stubborn, close minded person who is afraid of what they don't understand and not to judge someone before ya know them.

Blessed Be To All My Sisters & Brothers Of The Craft!!
Blessed Be

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The one thing that really bothers me about this article is how the teacher describes Wicca. Yes, the majority of those who have commented have already stated what I am about to, but I feel the need to repeat this.
If the man would have read one simple paragraph about the actual Wiccan religion, he would have seen it is the exact opposite if what he was describing. As a teacher, he should not have stated those things, even if they are his opinion.
In my opinion, he had no right to forbid either student from creating anything. It was a school assignment, and just like the previous poster stated, it is only the teacher's job to make sure the children make the object correctly. Bringing a Wiccan book to school is not grounds for forbidding a project any more than bringing Twilight.
The big thing, in my opinion, for parents is, "Oh, children are so easily influenced. I just don't feel comfortable with Johnny seeing that Wiccan kid reading his book or talking about his gods."
It's just an excuse. This all boils down to "kids being easily influenced." At the high-school level, you know right from wrong, and you can make your own decisions. If you don't agree with someone, don't talk to them. It's as simple as that. Peer-pressure is as real as the air we breathe, I know that, but we're not all connected by one brain. We can make our own decisions. What will Johnny do when he grows up and moves out into the real world? Will he go crying to his mommy because someone said his god wasn't real?
I'm fifteen, in high school, and I can make my own decisions. Of course, I may think back in ten years and ask myself what I was doing, but I'll be doing that my entire life. Just because you do not agree with a religion does not mean you should ban it.
People are going to do whatever they want, and there isn't any use worrying over whether it's right or wrong when it isn't your life. Just let it go.

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