Resolved: Plano ISD Did Not Ban Red & Green Because They're Christmas Colors. Discuss

Great Debates
1

Recently, Bricker posted this thread; War on Christmas - revisited, wherein one of the examples he used to illustrate his point was a currently pending case against the Plano Independent School District in Plano, Texas, by some parents who were up in arms that their children were asked to only bring white decorations to an elementary school holiday party, and have claimed that the colors of red and green were specifically banned due to district policy because they represented Christmas. These allegations were alledged to be supported by at least one letter the parents received from the school. There were other cases and other discussions therein, but this thread is strictly about the Plano case and not the general “war on Christmas,” which Bricker has since conceded doesn’t exist, at least as originally presented in his OP (I think – correct me if I’m wrong about that).

To save people the trouble of wading through all 14 pages to find the relevant bits, I’ll condense the debate, providing direct links to read the posts in their entirety:

Well, I got those letters the other day. They are here:

Cover sheet, Letter No. 1 and Letter No. 2.

Note that the cover letter indicates that “Some information has been redacted in order to comply with FERPA regulations,” however, the obvious blocks of blacked-out text are not their redations, but were done by me, as they contained some personal contact information for me, as well as for some of the signatories of the letters. Although the district didn’t hide the phone numbers from me in forwarding me the documents, and they’re certainly available for anyone else who wants to get them simply by making the same Open Records Request I did, I felt it would be wrong for me to take it upon myself to publish them on the web for millions of people to see, and potentially make harrassing phone calls to those individuals.

Lastly, I did some research on the signatories of the letters and have determined the following:

Ms. Goodyear (Sarah) – Fourth Grade Teacher, Thomas Elementary http://k-12.pisd.edu/schools/thomas/FourthGrade/Fourth.htm
Ms. Louis-Charles (Armandina) – Fourth Grade Teacher, Thomas Elementary http://k-12.pisd.edu/schools/thomas/FourthGrade/Fourth.htm
Robin Herrington – Probably a parent, no results via search
Christine Wade – Could be faculty, Murphy Middle School http://www.pisd.edu/schools/secondary/murphy/staff.shtml, but it seems unlikely, as this was a Thomas Elementary party, and is probably a coincidentally similar name.
Ms. Phillips – Too generic. Could be a parent
Lisha Russo – No results via search. Probably a parent
Ms. Dobrow (Susan) – Fourth Grade Teacher, Thomas Elementary http://k-12.pisd.edu/schools/thomas/FourthGrade/Fourth.htm
Mary Witkowski – School Supplies Committee Chairperson for the PTA http://k-12.pisd.edu/schools/thomas/PTAPage/PTA.htm
Tambra Clark – No results via search. Probably a parent
Ms. Reynard – No results via search. Probably a parent
Linda Swatterwhite – No results via search. Probably a parent
Sheree Armstrong – Teacher Appreciation Committee Chairperson for the PTA http://k-12.pisd.edu/schools/thomas/PTAPage/PTA.htm
Ms. Davis – Too generic, could be anybody
Terri Spielberger – No results via search. Probably a parent
Ms. Hinds – Hard to say; could be Kris Hinds, Third Grade teacher at Brinker Elementary, but like Christine Wade above, not really likely. http://k-12.pisd.edu/Schools/Brinker3/Public_html/teachers.htm
Linda Black – No results via search. Probably a parent
Jennifer Gustafson – No results via search. Probably a parent

Bricker made 2 contentions regarding these letters; one that the letters were written by the Principal, and the other that they expressly forbade red and green.

So, now that we have the actual evidence in hand, it’s obvious that neither one came from the Principal, Lynn Swanson, but were, in fact, from members of the PTA, as others of us contended, so he’ll have to concede point #1. But is there a legitimate interpretation of the letters as “claim[ing] that no red or green decorations are permitted as a matter of policy,” or that they were in any other way an attempt to thwart anything to do with Christmas, in violation of the children’s First Amendment rights?

That would certainly not be my interpretation, but I know you Straight Dopers ;), so discuss. . .

2

Thank you for your summary - I was afraid of the other thread, but also curious.

Reading the scans of the letters, I’d say **Bricker **will be dining on Corvus tonight. There is nothing damning there at all, just a simple form letter for organizing school parties, appropriate to any event. “Red and green” aren’t singled out for exclusion for any reason - purple plates would be just as frowned upon.

This makes sense from a classroom management standpoint. By keeping all the donations white and therefore neutral, leftover supplies can be stored and used for something else, either another party or arts and crafts. I don’t see this as evidence for any “War on Christmas”.

3

That would be because of the War on Homosexuality.

4

I had originally thought the issue was that Plano ISD had banned the wearing of the combination of red and green colors by students, although I’ll admit I found the whole issue so ridiculous that I hadn’t paid much attention to the story.

Anyway, the language in the letter is clear: there is to be a Winter Break party, whatever that is, and any craft supplies provided by parents should be white. At no point are red and green, or any other colors, even mentioned, and there is no language indicating anything at all positive or negative concerning the holiday “Christmas”. I have a feeling someone’s going to fix on the term “Winter Break party” as indicating some sort of prejudice against Christmas, but that’s apparently not how the issue was originally presented by O’Reilly and the other “War on Christmas” lobbyists.

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Don’t worry about it. Some of us already see TWOC (the war on Christmas) for the crap it is, and we also recognize the various methods of raising the bar, moving the goalposts, and obfuscation by irelevant talking points. That’s the trick to it, just keep “adjusting” the issue. You were witnessing a kind of “OP drift”. That’s one of the reasons I kept my involvement to a minimum in that thread too.

6

The OP in Bricker’s thread didn’t drift. It was in full sail, with brief stops in multiple ports…

7

Purple is a bad choice for “arbitrary color that’s not red and green.” It’s the liturgical color for Advent. :slight_smile:

8

And on further review. the liturgical color for Christmas is white. Which was the color that the letter specifically asked parents to bring.

I smell a Catholic conspiracy.

9

Damn. Good work, Shayna. I think you’ve nailed this down as well is it can be nailed. I hope Bricker will be good enough to concede on this issue.

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Yep–excellent OP, Shayna, and thanks for the research! Unless there are other letters out there (I believe Bricker claimed that the parents in the lawsuit received a personal letter from the principal [I got the spelling right this time]), I think this settles the issue.

Daniel

11

Oh please !

Since when did we start calling the Christmas break a “Winter break”
there is absolutely no cultural precedant for it and its introduction to replace previous term has to come from an agenda. So what is the agenda?
Could this be some white supremicist agenda?

Well now that they’re calling it a winter break we can abandon traditional Christmas colours and go for white. Only white.

Since when has any school kid been told when performing Christmas art that they have to be restricted to to red or green?

When before has kid tasked in a school system to perform arts and crafts been prohibited from using colour?

And finally, does it snow at Christmas in Plano?

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“We” started calling the break that occurs at the end of December (when Winter begins) the “Winter Break” when sufficient non-Christian kids began entering the schools that a reference to the Christian feast of Christmas made no real sense to them. YMMV

Every school districts that I know that has begun calling it a “Winter Break” is run by white Christians, so I suppose it might be a white supremacist “agenda,” but that is not how I originally viewed it.

This question is silly, since there is no evidence that any child has been so “tasked.” In other discussions of the Plano issue, it has been pointed out that the PTA has requested white napkins because:

  • colored napkins stain when little kids spill things on them
  • white napkins can be re-used at later events without having inappropriate color schemes.
    (Note that the two letters identify the materials for two separate parties, one of them Valentine’s Day, and both seek white napkins and neither explicitly prohibits colored tableware.) It was the claim by a group of parents that red and green were prohibited based on an anti-religious bias, but this evidence puts the lie to their claim (unless you are going to pretend that the “banning” of pink napkins on Valentine’s Day was also an assault on religion).
13

Well, if it means anything, my original request to the school was as follows (all emphasis as it appeared in my email):

And as far as I know, since that’s the only section of the complaint that Bricker referred to, and these are the letters the school sent in response to my request for letters referred to in that particular paragraph, I have to assume that these letters and the one Bricker was referring to are one (two) and the same.

And thanks for the compliments, guys. :slight_smile:

Oh Bricker ought to love that theory! :smiley:

Oh please, indeed! Are you serious? Really?

See? I knew there’d be somebody.

14

I think you were whooshed, tom. I would think Flying Dutchman’s equating the white napkins and plates to a white supremacist agenda might’ve tipped you off… :smiley:

15

Oh, I didn’t think that he seriously implied a supremacist conspiracy; I just noted that all my nearby districts are run by whites and thought it would be fun to toy with the idea.

16

Sorry, I have been reading some other stuff on the topic, this morning and got confused. None of the information supplied to Shayna refers to Valentine’s day, so I retract any references to February 14 or pink.

17

Actually, it does. . .

However, that’s not proof positive that the list of “approved items” would be identical for either of those parties to the one for the Winter Party (though an assumption that it would, wouldn’t be out of line, given the “form letter” feel and similarity in both letters).

18

Interestingly enough, here in British Columbia with all our Asian immigrants and higher ratio of small l liberal minded citizens we still call it Christmas break at school. I confirmed that with my PTA wife and 23 year old daughter. We have a spring break that used to be called Easter break but that term fell into disuse when the big school break into the spring was no longer tied to Good Friday and Easter. Sometimes it falls into a completely separate week. On its own, this particular issue should be of little concern to Christians concerned about the direction of national culture.

Mea culpa ! I had great difficulty in reading the cited letters and conflated an impression I picked up somewhere else referring to crafts with what I managed to read off the bat which was the date of the first letter in the latter part of December. I apologize.

As it stands right now for me, given what information I’ve gleaned so far I can’t see an issue at all here other than Bricker jumped the gun. Would that we all could be the subject of a Great Debate.

19

The only hesitation I have is that Bricker referred to some conversation between the principal and the plaintiffs, which he seemed to think was in writing; it was referred to by the plaintiffs in an interview with Gibson. I do not think that this letter exists (I think Bricker may have confused the existent letters with a purported oral conversation between plaintiffs and principal), but if it does, it might not have been covered by your FOIA request.

Daniel

20

Well, as I said in the other thread, I think the Plano letter will settle the issue one way or the other, and if it does not say what I understood it to say, then I’d have little choice but to withdraw Plano as an example.

So consider it withdrawn

And Shayna - despite what may have seemed rancorous exchanges in that thread, I hope you’ll accept my compliments as well – this kind of research is precisely in the spirit of the Straight Dope, just the kind of thing that Cecil Himself would do, and I for one am quite impressed.