Though Vermont has a reputation for being tolerant and accepting, one local high school student recently learned that disrespect has many faces. And sometimes it can be scary.
The student, a 15-year-old Marlboro resident who practices Wicca, never expected to have her beliefs attacked in the form of an offhand joke.

“I told him several times to knock it off, but he didn’t stop,” said Gwen Williams, about a classmate who was quoting from a Monty Python movie. 

“She’s a witch,” she said, repeating what he said to her. “Burn her.”

He told her he was only kidding, but she interpreted it as intolerance. Rather than losing her temper with the boy, she walked out of the classroom, she said.

“It hurt me.”

“The matter was investigated and dealt with,” said Brattleboro Union High School principal James Day, adding that because of confidentiality requirements, he couldn’t discuss it in any more detail, nor identify the offending student.

“Frequently we deal with this type of incident under the heading of harassment,” he said. “Harassment is pretty well defined in (the student handbook).”

Williams and her mother Renee had nothing but accolades for the way school staff investigated and responded to the incident.
“I feel they have done everything they need to do to make this person understand what he did was wrong, if not why it was wrong,” Gwen said.

“The school has been extremely supportive of her,” agreed Renee Williams. “The young man who started this whole thing wrote a very well-worded letter of apology.”

Most of Gwen’s friends who attend high school with her know she is Wiccan, and she openly wears a pentagram declaring her faith.

“I stopped hiding behind my fear in the hopes that my peers would not be so bigoted, and ignorant and just plain malicious,” she wrote to the Reformer in an e-mail. But, she added, “for the most part, I don’t talk about it because I am here to learn.”

She never expected to be confronted in such a way over her choice of spirituality, she said, especially living here in Vermont.

“I was absolutely astonished,” she said. “This is just such an eclectic place. I never thought someone would say something like that.”

Adrian Deguevara, of Putney, has practiced nature-based spirituality for more than 10 years. She said many Pagans and Wiccans are hesitant to “out” themselves because of an “underlying persecution” of their creed.

She said even though there is some prejudice against Wiccans and Pagans, this area “is very progressive because people are very connected to nature, regardless of their spiritual path.”

A Pagan from northern Vermont said she has encountered harassment because of her choices.

“Here in Vermont, not many of us feel endangered,” said Sigil Greenwood. “Still, it’s something we know we are often judged for, even here in Burlington.”

This weekend, Greenwood and up to 100 others will celebrate Beltane, a spring fertility celebration, one of the bigger and more accessible rituals conducted by Vermont Pagans.

Greenwood offered a couple of words of advice for Williams. One, that she “develop a discerning eye” while on her spiritual quest and not necessarily believe everything she reads or hears. And two, that her parents support her on her journey.

“How open is she with her parents and how receptive are they to her pursuing her own spiritual path?” she asked.

Renee Williams said she and her husband Matt, who are non-practicing Episcopalians, support their daughter’s choice.

“We talked about it,” said Renee Williams. “She had considered it very carefully and it’s a good fit for her.”

Gwen also had her own advice to offer.

“You need to be aware that when you open your mouth, what comes out of it is going to affect somebody else.”

Wicca is often described as a modern-day religion based on pre-Christian religious practices and is categorized as a pagan belief.

Pagans also include those who worship the Norse or Egyptian gods and those who practice Native American and Australian Aborigine shamanism, witchcraft, Voodoo and African religions.

Wiccan practitioners often go to great lengths to explain that Wicca and Witchcraft and not the same.

Wiccans do not accept the existence of Satan nor do they engage in ritual orgies, though some ceremonies may be conducted in the nude. While many Wiccans practice spell casting, most are hesitant to do so because they believe it can lead to unintended consequences.

While Wiccans don’t worship the Earth, they do hold it sacred, and celebrate its seasonal cycles in regular ceremonies throughout the year.

Though Wicca has attracted a great number of women because of its focus on the “Goddess,” men are also welcome.

The school’s behavior policy prohibits “verbal or physical conduct based on a student’s race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation or disability which has the purpose of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.”

Prohibited actions include “physical aggression or force, the threat of physical aggression or force, demeaning comments or behavior, racial, sexist or ethnic slurs, mimicking, jokes, gestures, name-calling, graffiti, stalking, sexual advances, use of nicknames emphasizing stereotypes, comments on manner of speaking, negative references to customs and derogatory comments regarding surnames.”

In a first offense, a student is “retrained and reassessed on his/her knowledge of the harassment policy and the reasons for its existence.”

For a second offense, the student “will be subject to the above and detention or other discipline at the discretion of the Director/Assistant Director.”

Additional offenses are listed simply as “any consequences they deem appropriate and reasonable.”

• Audette, Bob. Not just words. (2007, May 5). Brattleboro Reformer. Retrieved May 5, 2007.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.