Public School That Cancelled 'A Christmas Carol' Wins 2004 Ebenezer

Dec 22, 2004

Macy's and Texas School District Win 'Dishonorable Mention' Awards

Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington, has the dubious honor of "winning" The Becket Fund's annual Ebenezer Award for 2004 -- a lump of coal in a red stocking sent by FedEx to the person or group responsible for the most ridiculous affront to the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays.

Principal Mark Robertson cancelled a performance of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol by a private theater group on the high school's campus, claiming that the show would raise serious questions about the role of religion in public schools. Although the principal also cited a school policy against the sale of tickets for the show, the performance had been scheduled for months in advance, and the same theater group had previously performed two secular plays at the school without incident.

"Although A Christmas Carol was canceled, the students and parents at Lake Washington High School witnessed an outstanding performance of the role of Ebenezer Scrooge," said Anthony Picarello, President and General Counsel of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

The school stood out in a strong field of "Ebby" contenders, including two that won "Dishonorable Mention." The Plano School District near Dallas, Texas, came in a close second for prohibiting student speech about Christmas so severely that, on Friday, a federal court ordered the school to allow students to engage in religious expression at the school's "Winter Break" party. The U.S. Justice Department has also started a broader investigation of the District's practices regarding student religious speech.

And in third place was Macy's Department Stores, for striking the phrase "Merry Christmas" from its banners and employees' vocabulary in favor of the more generic "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings." "It's ironic that the setting for the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street, and the perennial sponsor of a Thanksgiving Parade featuring Santa, suddenly forgot its history," noted Jared Leland, The Becket Fund's Media & Legal Counsel, "not to mention the reason why the bulk of its customers come flooding in this time of year."

The Becket Fund is a nonpartisan, interfaith, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. In its first decade, the firm has represented Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and others in a variety of cases involving federal and state constitutional law.