Is This Witch A Bias Victim?
Seventeen-year-old Crystal Siefferly says she's just an ordinary, fun-loving high school senior. She's also a witch, a member of the Wicca religion, and she says she's being discriminated against in her high school, CBS News Correspondent Drew Levinson reports.
She's suing a suburban Detroit school district. In the suit, she says her rights are being violated because she can't wear a symbol of her faith to school. The American Civil Liberties Union is joining her in the suit.
She said many people fear a pentagram or pentacle because they don't understand it and that the star's points signify water, earth, fire, air and spirit "and the circle symbolizes birth, death, and rebirth, the continuation of life."
"If Christian students may wear the cross to Lincoln High School, Wicca students must be able to wear the pentagram," said ACLU attorney Robert Sedler.
The school superintendent declined to be interviewed on camera. He denied the school district discriminates against witches or signs of their religion. But it was on a list sent out a few months ago of things listed as inappropriate in school.
There are as many as 2.5 million witches in this country. Years ago it could get you hanged or burned at the stake.
"It's a positive religion, it's a positive symbol. I think man seeks to destroy what he fears," Siefferly says.
District officials say it's too soon to say how they will respond to the suit, which will wind up in front of a federal judge.
Reported by Drew Levinson
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