Fwd: HP Controversy in York, PA

[blpurdom]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Barbara Purdom <blpurdom at y...> wrote:
> My best friend sent this to me.  It's actually
> possibly on-topic, but I'm putting it here to play it
> safe.
> 
> --Barb
> 

Okay--here's the actual thing she sent me.  (Not available online.) 
 
York Daily Record
December 8, 2001

Reaction grows to anti-Harry Potter sentiment at EasternThe issue 
will be discussed at a Dec. 17 meeting of the Education Committee.
By SCOT D. CELLEY

Reaction was mixed to a parent's move in Eastern York School 
District to ban Harry Potter books from the schools. Deb DiEugenio 
told the board Thursday night that she became upset when her sixth-
grade daughter brought home a permission slip for her to read a 
Harry Potter book as part of the instruction. "It's against my 
daughter's constitution, it's evil, it's witchcraft," DiEugenio 
said. "I'm not paying taxes to teach my child witchcraft." 
 
However, the U.S. publisher for the book, Scholastic Inc., issued a 
statement Friday urging against any such move. "We believe that 
every parent has the right to decide what his or her own child 
should or should not read," according to the statement. 
 
"We do not believe that a parent has the right to tell another 
parent what their child should or should not read. We are absolutely 
opposed to any sort of banning or censorship of a book based on the 
view of some readers that the book is harmful." 
 
Four students did not take part in the middle school reading, 
according to the administration, and were temporarily assigned to a 
different classroom. At DiEugenio's side was Tony Leanza, a pastor 
at New Wine Christian Center. Leanza is also a teacher at Canadochly 
Elementary School in the district. He tried to engage the board in a 
debate about the Harry Potter books, but the board refused. 
 
Instead, it will be the subject of an Education Committee meeting at 
5 p.m. Dec. 17, in the administrative training room at the high 
school. Board member Darvin Shelley echoed the sentiments of several 
other members when he said, "Harry Potter is witchcraft . . . and 
people are being harmed by witchcraft." 
 
The Rev. Christine Aubin, director of communications for the 
Witches' League of Public Awareness, said in a statement Friday that 
the Harry Potter series is fiction, similar to C.S. 
Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" or J.R.R. Tolkien's books. 
 
"Witchcraft the religion is far different than Witchcraft taught at 
Hogwort's," Aubin wrote, referring to the fictional witch academy 
that Harry Potter attends. 
 
"In a day and age when people are killing others in the name of 
the `one true religion' and the `one true God'," Aubin 
wrote, "perhaps a less combative path for inter-religious dialogue 
needs to be sought and an open mind to the possibility that there 
maybe more than one true religion — but realizing that each 
religions is true to its adherents." 

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