Students in one Washington State school district won't be participating in Halloween parties this year--at least not at school. The Puyallup School District has cancelled all plans for Halloween parties, explaining that classroom time should be used for other activities. Parents might have accepted that explanation at face value, had the district provided further reasons for its decision.

"We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen told ABC News. Hansen explained that Halloween parties waste classroom time and create potential embarrassment for families unable to afford elaborate costumes.

As ABC News affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle reported, it was the district's third reason that left many Puyallup parents puzzled. As the station reported, "The district said Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches." As the district's spokeswoman explained, "Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that."

Hansen also cited the district's official guidelines for holiday celebrations, which includes a statement reading: "Use of derogatory stereotypes is prohibited, such as the traditional image of a witch, which is offensive to members of the Wiccan religion."

As the station also reported, an internal district e-mail from October 2000 warned teachers and other district personnel that "The Wiccan religion is a bona fide religion under the law, and its followers are entitled to all the protections afforded more mainstream religions. Building administrators should not tolerate such inappropriate stereotyping (images such as Witches on flying brooms, stirring cauldrons, casting spells, or with long noses and pointed hats) and instead address them as you would hurtful stereotypes of any other minority."

Sixth-grader Grace Macon responded with disappointment. "Yeah, it does bother me because I would really like to go around and dress up," she said. Her sentiment was supported by Tonya Reynolds, whose daughter also attends Maplewood Elementary in the district. "They're so worried about being politically correct anymore," Reynolds complained, "that we're not allowed to do much of anything."

While parents and children debate the relative arguments for using classroom time for holiday celebrations, others will be far more concerned about the district's interest in Wicca and paganism as deserving the same respect as "mainstream religions."

Perhaps we should not be surprised. After all, Neo-paganism has been on the rise since the 1980s, and a recovery of pagan religion--especially the renaissance of witchcraft known as "Wicca" --has been prominent in the feminist movement for over a decade.

Bookstores, radio programs, and the Internet all feature Wicca-themed materials, and the resurgence of ancient paganisms in new forms goes hand in hand with the rise of the therapeutic culture, the New Age movement, and the radicalization of feminist ideology.