This woman and her ideology is the exact reason I'd like to put the liberal movement on a boat and torpedo it.

Anne Foley, the principal at Kennedy School in Somerville, Mass., sent an email to teachers warning them about celebrating Thanksgiving, the Boston Herald reported.

"When we were young we might have been able to claim ignorance of the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed against the indigenous peoples," Kennedy School Principal Anne Foley wrote.


"We can no longer do so. For many of us and our students celebrating this particular person is an insult and a slight to the people he annihilated. On the same lines, we need to be careful around the Thanksgiving Day time as well."

Teachers have already been told not to let students dress up for Halloween.

Parents told MyFoxBoston that they felt the principal was overreacting.

“My kids were brought up with Halloween and whatever have you. She has no right to tell these kids they can’t have it,” one woman told the station.

“The children, they need to express themselves and be children. Don’t take holidays and fun time away from them. They have so much homework. They don’t have enough play time,” another said.

Superintendant Tony Pierantozzi told The Herald that Halloween is “problematic” because of connections to witchcraft.

“I don’t think they should not be able to celebrate these holidays I mean this country was formed with the idea that everything is a free country, and they should be able to celebrate these holidays,” a Somerville woman told MyFoxBoston.

Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, who has three kids at Kennedy, also weighed in.

“I’m the son of Italian immigrations, so I take Columbus Day very near and dear, and I’m proud that he discovered America and that America’s named after another Italian,” Curtatone said. “If we ignore and we don’t want to talk about it, if we want to stifle debate, then we’re ignoring history.”

He also added that he was planning on being in full costume at Somerville’s annual Halloween parade, which residents said is one of the largest in the greater Boston area.

A few Kennedy students also said they disagreed with the ban.

“I don’t like that. I’ve celebrated Halloween since I was a little kid and I don’t think it’s right to ban it,” one Kennedy student told MyFoxBoston.

“I think that it’s kind of ridiculous because we should celebrate what we want to celebrate. We shouldn’t be told what we shouldn’t by other people,” another said.

The situation even caught the attention of U.S. senator for Massachusetts, Scott Brown.

“Let’s not take political correctness to the extreme. Let the kids in Somerville enjoy Halloween,” Brown tweeted Friday.

Halloween, I can understand, school is for learning and such 'celebrations' are a perk , not an entitlement.

Thanksgiving day though, is a reference to history which, although not ALL GOOD, is significant enough to be aknowledged

Oh bull, it boils down to people trying to force their views of what's right and wrong on everyone else. Typical left thinking. As for it having to do with witchcraft, what is the difference in that and telling the farce that Jesus rose from the dead? "Oh but that was different, that was a miracle!" some people say. It's a known scientific fact that the body starts to decompose almost immediately after death, so I suppose after three days of decomposition he emerged from his tomb unscathed? Sure. And I suppose next you'll want me to believe that xmas, has to do with Christ's birthday and that's the reason we celebrate that too. Nevermind that it was a Pagan holiday and these "good" christians stole it. It was around thousands of years before christinanity was even dreamed up

Its not right or left its right or wrong. They will not teach a person in grade school about the atrocities commited by the white settlers on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The principal is correct this now being a multi culteral america like it or not, thanksgiveing as it is traditionaly celibrated is fraud and a crime against the real history as it occured.

Thats a good thing if you think schools should educate. I would lothe the day that they would take innocent kids and teach them fairy tales and pass it off as truth.

Even so witchcraft is its own religion....freedom of religion....to express any and all religion.....and Christopher Columbus remains in history the founder of the United States even though the Spanish discovered South American and Florida way before Columbus....but history is written and history speaks.....I really dont believe the principal should have the power to allow which holidays are expressed and celebrated and which aren't

All the schools I know of allow costume on All Hollow's Eve.....or dress down Friday is uniforms.....they of course do not call it holidays but do things....the school my son goes to had Cloepatra Day at school and I volunteered in the cafeteria....they have civil war day.....etc. Why not Salem Day in order to remember all those women killed in vain as witches burned at the cross for hatred....or that ran forever as outcasts because of hatred and did nothing wrong....

That's a part of history too, what happened in Salem, PA......the murders of what christians did in the name of God....that those women should be remembered.....so that is never happens again...

Halloween is allowed in schools?
See this class picture.

indigenous

adj

originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native (often followed by to ): the plants indigenous to Canada; the indigenous peoples of southern Africa.


If you believe in evolution no one is indigenous to North America.

Also, the indians gave as good as they got. The history of the period is so skewed by the white guilt leftists that you would think the indians were standing on the shores with welcome signs offering free internet and laundry services.

You sir are correct! American indians are as native as you, me and everyone else born here.

I think we should invent real holidays. Let's just celebrate things we are actually happy about.

Change Halloween into pumpkin pie day.

Change Christmas to a celebration of the end of winter.

Celebrate spring break!

Celebrate the first day of summer!

it's still allowed in our schools. period.

the whole thing is stupid. if u don;t like the way thanksgiving is taught - then utilize the teachable moment to discuss indigneaous peoples (most of whom are tired of being discussed anyway)

don;t ban holloween TEACH - it has nothing to do with witchcraft - people can be so ignorant -it is an ALL SAINTS Day - sheesh it IS a school, is it not - TEACH- change how it's taught BUT never ban, never censor, always tell the truth, always bring in new information

teach about germanic history at Christmas and about HOW the holiday became associated w/ Christianity

anything else is head in the sand ignorance - including that principal who needs to be informed that the local grocery is hiring check out girls

half the world has no clue what our holidays are anyway

this all reminds me of Nazi book burnings

there are situations where the body holds up past three days, they usually are manipulated somehow by man or the elements,, but since christians believe God has some power over both,, the resurrection makes complete sense

but its really not even THAT complicated,,I dont think school is the place for parties, or that school parties are an entitlement

students are there to learn, they can socialize and party outside of school,, so to me, any type of 'celebration' they may or may not allow in school doesnt concern me too much

There have been real cases where an apparently dead person has come back to life after three days. One such case was in a war zone where a man had been shot. The climate was warm and bodies begin to decompose quickly in warm climates. The man even had maggots or some kind of worms beginning to dine on his flesh when he came back to life.

Another case was a man who died in a car accident. He was pronounced dead and stored in a cooler for three days. He was on the autopsy table about to be cut when he came back to the land of the living.

We're not talking about having parties we're talking about dressing up for Halloween and decorating for Thanksgiving.

In school , during school hours, he/she should

expression is one thing, but celebration is another

If kids want to exchange candy is one thing, if they want to dress up in costumes, thats another.

but we must use common sense about what is 'disruptive' or not too,, which is a subjective standard

Decorate.

Sometimes its the only art and crafts the children get to participate in. geeeze.

Now go make a turkey picture to tape on your fridge.

I have always thought it was a great idea to circumvent all the restrictions imposed by the seperation clause or the trend to try to not hurt anyones feelings,, to simply reference everything back to a 'historical' context,,

great idea,,its easily defended as being 'educational'

I'd ask you to consider to what extent you would edit the education of history based on religious affiliation. Considering that most historical events throughout the world only occurred as a direct result of religious events or religious beliefs, there won’t be much history to teach if you cut out everything that occurred due to religion.