School Insists “Easter Bunny” Be Renamed “Peter Rabbit”
April 9th, 2007 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
And now we give you another inductee into The Moderate Voice’s prestigious Get A Life Club — this time giving an award to The Powers That Be at Tiverton Middle School in Tiverton, R.I:
A Rhode Island public school has decided the Easter bunny is too Christian and renamed him Peter Rabbit, and a state legislator is so hopping mad he has introduced an “Easter Bunny Act” to save the bunny’s good name.“Like many Rhode Islanders I’m quite frustrated … by people trying to change traditions that we’ve held in this country for 150 years, like the Easter bunny,” Rhode Island State Rep. Richard Singleton told “Good Morning America Weekend Edition.”
The Get A Life Club Award is given to an individual, group or institution that reveals itself to need to get a deeper sense of perspective due to their obsession with P.C. or other small things blown way out of proportion. Other criteria may apply. But this is a slam-dunk induction:
The Easter bunny was scheduled to make an appearance at a craft fair on Saturday at Tiverton Middle School in Tiverton, R.I.But the district’s schools Superintendent William Rearick told event organizers to change the bunny’s name to Peter Rabbit in “an attempt to be conscious of other people’s backgrounds and traditions.”
Singleton struck back this week by proposing a bill, nicknamed the “Easter Bunny Act,” to stop all local municipalities from changing the name of popular religious and secular symbols like the Easter bunny.
A personal note: With a name like “Gandelman” it’s clear I don’t celebrate Easter (although I do perform at Easter shows in my other incarnation). But when I was growing up, my teachers did mention “The Easter Bunny.” In school assemblies they’d sing “Jingle Bells” around Christmas time. My elementary school classrooms even had Christmas decorations (and a Chanuka menorah).
But the years passed and I never had to go into therapy due to that (for other things, yes…for that…no). I never robbed a bank because of that. I never felt any less my own heritage or of my own religion due to that. I didn’t feel persecuted, marginalized, singled out, apprehensive. I just shrugged and realized I didn’t celebrate those holidays but some did. End of emotional reaction.
In fact, you could argue that allowing someone like the Easter Bunny to go to a school without insisting he change his name is a form of religious tolerance.
For their implication that children could be traumatized for all their lives by having an Easter Bunny attend a school, we induct these otherwise-dedicated educators into The Moderate Voice’s Get A Life Club.
And for another reason: they have underscored for kids and adults that it isn’t only the Easter Bunny (or Easter Chicken?) who can lay an egg.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 12:21 am and is filed under Political Correctness, Get A Life Club, Society, Education. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:17 am
In Scotland recently a school changed the name of a traditional play they were putting on, ‘The Three Little Pigs’ to ‘The Three Little Puppies’ in order not to offend Muslims. It turned out the Muslims wouldn’t have been offended, sense prevailed, and the play became ‘The Three Little Pigs’ again. But it made the National news. I suppose it could theoretically have offended Jews as well, but we don’t seem as bothered about ‘offending’ them at the moment.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Santa Claus better watch out, after all he is a “saint” (though I bet plenty of English speakers forget that Santa means Saint) and symbolic of Christmas. People reaaaally need to get a life.
Actually, in a highly twisted way, the school is preserving the purity of Christian faith, by striving to eliminate traditions that have very little to do with the Bible and a great deal more to do with ancient pagan faiths combined with predatory commercialization.
I recently read about a British town that had one school try to change “bah bah Black sheep� to “bah bah rainbow sheep�, since the original wording could be interpreted as racist (in their twisted little minds). The school finally changed their minds after the uproar and after being told by many black parents that it was the most ridiculous thing they’d heard of in their lives.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Exactly. That’s the irony of it, isn’t it?
April 9th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Yes, the Easter Bunny is actually a pagan-originated symbol. In fact, most popular “Christian” holiday icons are pagan: the Christmas Tree, Easter Bunny, holly, mistletoe, Easter eggs, etc.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:20 am
How about giving the award to Rhode Island State Rep. Richard Singleton as well?
“bah bah rainbow sheep� just had me laughing out loud - did somebody then rant that the school was singing about gay sheep?
For more on pagan origins of such mundane things as the days of the week and the months of the year, go here:
April 9th, 2007 at 5:29 am
WAR ON EASTER! WAR ON EASTER!
April 9th, 2007 at 5:30 am
If the school needs to get a life, what does that state legislator need to get?
April 9th, 2007 at 5:39 am
Perhaps his brain needs washing and he could be assigned to more committees. WAY too much time on his hands!
April 9th, 2007 at 5:42 am
carpeicthus I’d say he needs a job, but the worst part is that he already has one. Rhode Island must be heaven on earth if this is the sort of problem that warrents the attention of a rep.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Every action has an opposite and equal reaction, and that’s the explanation for the congressman’s actions as well as a lot of other right wing response to PC efforts to rid our public sphere of references to religious traditions. That doesn’t mean I agree with him, but I do feel that he is less culpable for the whole thing than those who pushed the issue to begin with.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Rhode Island IS a beautiful place - I spent 1-1/2 years dating a woman who lived there.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:52 am
Ridding public schools and courthouses of religious domination is not PC but rather an important Separation between Church and State issue.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:54 am
C Stanley he has more common sense on his side certainly, but it’s still ridiculous, just for a different reason. The school pushes PC to levels that boggle the mind for their sheer stupidity. The rep spends the valuable time of the government on a small incident that should rank about 1000th on a list of the most important issues to attend to in a state.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:59 am
I agree with you, Lynx, that’s why I said that I didn’t agree with the congressman either. But I think it’s important to point out that his actions were in reaction to someone else initiating this, which is the case in most of the social values arguments that we’re currently experiencing.
Holly,
Surely you aren’t arguing that having someone come to a public school dressed in a rabbit costume and calling himself the Easter bunny (which, as Lynx and others have pointed out, is actually a secularized abomination of the religious meaning of Easter anyway and if anything, this symbolism undermines rather than promotes religious values) is an example of the government establishing or promoting religion?
April 9th, 2007 at 7:12 am
You all miss the point. This is not about religion. Its about an attempt to strike down the chocolate and sugar industries in America. We all know how evil they are. They make kids hyper and most of the poor folk can’t afford sugar and chocolate.
Its really anti commercialism and therefore just another way for the Left to deny not only the poverty stricken their fair share of sugar but the wealthy kids as well. All the while claiming it is for their betterment. Another coy ploy at attempting to legislate lives in the Nanny Kingdom of the USA.
Why do I say the left? Well Rhode Island democrats outnumber their republican counterparts by almost 3 to 1 therefore by default it is the Democrats/Lefts fault no matter which way the wind blows in this debate.
Perhaps if they work hard they can make more people loose their jobs, raise the misery index and then once again sit back smuggly while people are deprived of sugar, chocolate and jobs and blame the Republicans for it all.
Clever. Very Clever. But Im onto them.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:17 am
It’s obvious that neither Santa Claus nor the Easter Bunny belong in a public school. Changing its name is just an attempt to evade the issue.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:38 am
It’s obvious that neither Santa Claus nor the Easter Bunny belong in a public school. Changing its name is just an attempt to evade the issue.
It is obvious? To who?
Don’t know about you but when I was in school a long time ago when it was okay to be politically incorrect there was no attempt to brainwash me with religion. I didn’t even make a connection of Santa Clause to Christianity. I made the connection that “Santa meant 2 weeks Christmas Vacation and lots of cool presents and lots of fun.”
You people are pathetic. Dont belong in school. Gawd. What are you trying to do to our children? Rape them of diversity? Destroy their abilities to think creatively by feeding them brainwashed political and social correctness?
I was being smug in my previous post yet being honest. This is not about religion it is about the long suffering left who are attempting to create their version of socialism/communism in this country by the ever so slow death of all things that would stand in their way. Now the Easter Bunny is a threat to their agenda.
They can’t do it radically so they have embarked on the slow death of the Soul of America.
The right is on to you. Long Live the EASTER BUNNY!!!
April 9th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Brilliant irony really:
Although Easter is (per se) a christian holiday, the easter bunny, and easter eggs are not christian traditions, but rather pagan ones of some variety.
Similarly, although popular at Christmas-time, Jingle Bells was apparently originally written for Thanksgiving, and does not contain any direct references to Christmas or Christianity
April 9th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Nobody, I was sure you’re first post was snark, but I see now that it wasn’t, that you’re actually serious. Now and again I come across someone who seems more of a parody than an actual person. This is not to say you aren’t an actual person, but that your views are so stereotypical and outrageous, that one is inclined to wonder if they can possibly be real. So “the Left” is “embarked on the slow death of the Soul of America”….wow. Never mind the fact you just accused the lot of us of being “the left”, I’m sure C. Stanley finds THAT hilarious LOL.
You DID see the sign on the page that says “The MODERATE Voice” didn’t you?
April 9th, 2007 at 8:00 am
It should be obvious to everyone that neither Santa Claus nor the Easter Bunny belong in a public school.
I’m of the generation where we had to sing Christmas songs, including some specifically religious Christian ones. I’d skip certain words and hope that God would forgive me.
My parents were of the generation where they had to recite Christian prayers in public schools. Thank God schools aren’t like that anymore!
OTOH, making a big deal about it, as in this case, is probably a waste of everyone’s time.
April 9th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Holly,
I agree with you that requiring kids to sing or recite religious lines is wrong, but this is not only not as consequential, it’s not even close.
Here’s how I personally think these things should be handled: generally it’s the ‘room mothers’ who plan the seasonal celebrations (perhaps I should be PC and say ‘room parents’ but I’ve yet to meet a ‘room Dad’.)
So, at the beginning of the year the school should distribute guidelines to them. Let them know that if they plan a celebration around a holiday theme, they should send home a note to all parents describing the event and asking for feedback and participation. Then if the plan is to have a party right before Christmas which will include stockings with trinkets and candy, and the room decorations will include a Christmas tree, parents of other faiths may wish to participate by sending in a Menorah or dreidls for the kids. A Muslim parent may want to send in something that represents Eid if it falls around the same time of year.
If there’s anything objectionable (if the room parent gets negative feedback on some aspect of the party), then that aspect should be eliminated from the planning.
As long as these celebrations are inclusive to the degree that the families desire and devoid of overt religious tone (as judged by all parents), I see no reason to ban the celebration of holiday traditions. I find it odd that we celebrate diversity and wish for people to learn more about each other by living, working, and going to school together but then we are so concerned about religious indoctrination that we fail to allow kids to learn about other faith traditions.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:07 am
No only the people on the left are pathetic. The people on the right are sage and all knowing. Wise beyond their years. I personally find it offensive that the left has gone so far as to now want to take away my chocolate rabbits. I personally am addicted to chocolate you know.
But it makes sense to me now because they describe their foreign policy as Carrot and STick approach and before I was confused but now that is beginning to make sense to me as well. I asked the question are we fighting a war or hunting rabbits. Now I have my answer.
We are Hunting RABBITS!!!
Death to America is a long and slow process led by those carrot and stick liberals bent on the destruction of the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause. And they say their is no devil.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:08 am
CS, I can go for that! I do not recall ever encountering Santa Claus or an Easter Bunny in school but do have faint memories of kids banging on a piñata (elementary), playing a boy in a Christmas play (jr hi) and singing in the operetta Amahl and the Night Visitors (high school).
April 9th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Nobody, please continue to enjoy your chocolate rabbits.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Oh my, would someone please call Bill O’Reilly!
He’d be so happy to step in against the war on the Easter Bunny.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:33 am
I have begun stocking up on them for their death is imminent as the Left continues to march in the streets burning The Easter Bunny and Santa Clause in effigy. Is there no stopping the mindless massacre of Chocolate rabbits? Saint Nick sitting alone in Santa’s Workshop as his elves trudge south to file for unemployment.
America must rise up and stop this lunacy. We must prevent the death of the Easter Bunny and all things Chocolate or else what next. The M&M’s? The Keebler Elves? Only the left knows in their agenda to spread vanilla where chocolate once ruled.
Is their no hope?
Woe unto ye I proclaim, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. “Let my Easter Bunnies Go!”
April 9th, 2007 at 9:40 am
OK OK I get it….it WAS snark LOL, save me some of those rabbits!
April 9th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Please, dark chocolate for me!
April 9th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Separation of ALL religion and state at the expense of over priced capitalist chocolate sales is paramount. Chocolate rabbits are inappropriate. Should be chocolate pigs, with the capitalist pig dollar sign embossed on it’s arse.