Alabama School Bans the Word ‘Easter’

Raging religiophobia.

From here: 

Boys and girls at an Alabama elementary school will still get to hunt for eggs – but they can’t call them ‘Easter Eggs’ because the principal banished the word for the sake of religious diversity.

“We had in the past a parent to question us about some of the things we do here at school,” said Heritage Elementary School principal Lydia Davenport. “ So we’re just trying to make sure we respect and honor everybody’s differences.”

Television station WHNT reported that teachers were informed that no activities related to or centered around any religious holiday would be allowed – in the interest of religious diversity.

“Kids love the bunny and we just make sure we don’t say ‘the Easter Bunny’ so that we don’t infringe on the rights of others because people relate the Easter bunny to religion,” she told the television station. “  A bunny is a bunny and a rabbit is a rabbit.”

There are two things wrong with this:  One, diversity is about including various perspectives and beliefs, not banning them.  It is positively Orwellian to censor or ban a point of view in the name of increasing diversity.  But the second thing wrong with this is that the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs have NOTHING to do with Christianity or any other religion.  "Easter"merely designates the date or time of year when bunnies and eggs are used.  It's like a Thanksgiving Dinner or a Labor Day Picnic.  Simply referring to Easter bunnies or Easter eggs implies no endorsement of religion whatsoever.

What kind of understanding of freedom, free speech, and living in a free society are schools teaching children when they communicate that certain words--words alleged to pertain to religion--must be banned for the sensitivity (or imagined sensitivity) of others?  It is about time we got these religiophobic (yes, it really is a word) idiots to explain why they keep perpetrating this kind of nonsense.