Madison, Alabama: “Teachers at Heritage Elementary School in Madison were informed Monday their plans to have an ‘academic egg hunt’ with their kindergarten and second grade students would need to be scrapped,” because they’re getting rid of the word “Easter.” “Easter” is not permitted. There can still be an Easter Bunny, but it’s just a bunny. There can still be an Easter egg roll, but it can’t be an Easter egg roll. Just an egg roll. Easter is being eliminated because it’s not inclusive.
“The schoolÂ’s principal, Lydia Davenport, informed staff no activities related to or centered around any religious holiday would be allowed in the interest, she says, of religious diversity among students.” Religious diversity means no religion. Does it work that way with other diversities? So the principal, Lydia Davenport said, yeah, we had it in the past, but we’re going to get rid of it. This Easter business, it’s too exclusionary. Not everybody’s a Christian. Not everybody believes in Easter. We’re not going to force Easter on people in our school. We’re not going to permit it to happen. So it’s gone. Alabama.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’ve got a sound bite of the principal in Alabama, Lydia Davenport, announcing the elimination of anything to do with Easter at her school.
DAVENPORT: Kids love the bunny and we just try to make sure that 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.
RUSH: Really? Who worships the Easter Bunny? Why even have a bunny? I mean, it’s Easter. They’re going to have the bunny, but we’re not going to have anything to do with Easter. So why have the bunny? Kids love the bunny, but we’re not going to say the Easter Bunny. We don’t want people to know that there’s anything going on here that’s religious. Well, what’s the point? What’s this, the bunny holiday? Why are we celebrating the bunny? What’s the big deal? Who worships a bunny? Why even bother with this?
I tell you what: Let’s do the bunny thing in August when no school’s going on. Do the bunny thing before school starts so this principal is not faced with this kind of pressure. The eggs might spoil a little bit out there. You have to take some care on that, but still.
Did you know that anybody worshipped the bunny? I didn’t, either.