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- Suspected of "casting spells'' on
their fellow classmates, eight sixth-grade girls were pulled from class
last week and lectured for nearly two hours by a vice principal on the
evils of witchcraft.
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- Parents of the 12-year-old students at
Panorama Middle School, part of the Harrison School District in southeast
Colorado Springs have since demanded the district apologize for the May
4 incident.
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- But D-2 administrators maintain they
did not violate district policy by questioning the girls without their
parents' prior knowledge.
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- "I don't really understand what
went wrong,'' said Principal Rich Hayes. "I feel like it was handled
professionally and ethically and I have told the parents that I will be
happy to follow up with them.''
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- The mother of one of the girls rumored
to be casting spells insists the witch hunt against her daughter and seven
other girls was inappropriate. She and other parents have since contacted
the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado for guidance.
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- "I am just really shocked that something
like this could happen,'' said parent Heidi Hazlett.
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- Panorama officials say they became alarmed
after students told them the girls were reading a book about witchcraft
during recess, called "Salem's Trial.''
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- The book had been checked out of the
school library.
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- "They were reading it on their break
time, and they did say that once in a while they sat in a circle and did
some play things. I guess it was found odd because these girls were reading
a book,'' Hazlett said.
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- Last Tuesday, school Vice Principal Joan
Abrahamsen pulled the girls out of class twice to lecture them. The first
time, they were required to fill out "Student Referral Forms'' instructing
the girls to answer why they believed they were being detained. The girls
were removed from class a second time after lunch, and until after the
final bell rang at 2:40 p.m., were questioned by Abrahamsen - with a security
guard present - over their beliefs and participation in witchcraft.
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- During the second encounter, the girls
also admitted they had watched "The Craft,'' a PG-13 rated movie about
four teenage girls who are involved in witchcraft. The students had not
watched the movie during school hours.
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- According to a description of the session,
written by Hazlett's daughter Ashley Pederson, Abrahamsen suggested to
one of the girls that her friends were "garbage'' and told them the
incident would go on their permanent records. Several of the girls, including
her daughter, were reduced to tears, Hazlett said. "These are good
kids we're talking about, who get A's and B's in school. We don't treat
them this way, why should the school?''
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- Hazlett said she was further alarmed
when Vice Principal Abrahamsen didn't telephone her until 8:30 that night
- nearly six hours after the encounter. Rather than express concern about
her daughter, the vice principal initiated the telephone call by asking
whether Hazlett was "aware that her daughter was a witchcraft-oriented
person,'' she said.
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- "I was speechless, I didn't know
what to say. It's not what you'd expect to hear from a school vice principal,''
Hazlett said. "I've never met a teacher or administrator who would
treat kids like this, or their parents for that matter.''
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- Hazlett said she and her husband met
with the district's director of student services, Chuck Hewins, the following
day to voice their protest about how the situation was handled. A meeting
May 6 that was designed to resolve the confusion between the parents, students
and administrators deteriorated without resolution, she said. This week,
Abrahamsen declined to comment, referring all questions to Principal Hayes,
who defended his school's response.
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- "We had received concerns from students
and parents about a group of girls who, when they were upset with other
students, said that they were going to cast a spell on them,'' Hayes said.
" And, they were reading books about witchcraft.''
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- Hewins also defended the school's actions,
saying "there's a difference between studying (witchcraft) and practicing
it.'' He was unsure whether the girls were actually practicing witchcraft,
however, and both he and Haynes said they were not aware whether any of
the alleged "spells'' actually worked.
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- The principal, who was assigned to Panorama
Middle School at the beginning of the school year, said no investigation
is planned into whether Abrahamsen exhibited inappropriate heavy-handedness.
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