A Washington state school district is canceling its annual Halloween celebration, and the explanation has some parents baffled.

Oh, this is truly a goodie. As someone who was once a “wiccan” I find this seriously amusing.

A letter sent home to parents Wednesday said there will be no observance of Halloween in any of the district’s schools.

“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 said.

The superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons, Hansen said. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. Second, some families can’t afford costumes and the celebrations thus can create embarrassment for children.

Both of those reasons seemed sensible to the parents who spoke to ABC News affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle. But the district’s third reason left some Puyallup parents shaking their heads.

The district said Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.

“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 said.

The Wiccan, or Pagan, religion is said to be growing in the United States and there are Wiccan groups in Puyallup.

ABC News: School Says Halloween Disrespectful to Witches

Okay, this school has no idea. Samhain is very much a Wiccan holiday. It is the day that marks the end of the harvest and the end of the Summer months. In Wiccan lore, winter starts on this sabbat.

In light of the appointment for new Political Correctness Eradicator role, I would like to point out that this is just one good example of something that is political correctness gone wrong. It is an attempt by someone with absolutely no clue trying to say what will and will not offend or influence someone.

Why would a recognised sabbat that has been around since before the Celts (even before wicca, druidism and shamanism, the ancients had marked the end of the harvest) be offensive if its celebrated? Would a Christian be offended by Christmas as its now celebrated? Maybe we should stop celebrating Christmas too.

The tradition of Trick-Or-Treating is a way of representing the end of the harvest. You go around harvesting your candy from the neighbourhood for an evening. Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest.

The parents are going to ignore this from the school. I think its pretty safe to say that the children are still going to go trick-or-treating on Monday. But this is a good example of Political Correctness. I’m sure the school has good intentions, but maybe they should actually learn what the hell they’re talking about before they start telling other people they shouldn’t do something because another group might be insulted by it. :-\