Parents Speak Out After School District Demands Employees Take Down Christmas Decor To Prioritize 'Neutrality' - 'Don't Forget To Cover Your Bus In Pride Flags'

Last week, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District walked back a decision that ordered bus drivers to remove Christmas decorations from school buses after multiple parents complained about the decorations. 

The bus drivers received a memo on Friday that demanded that they remove the Christmas decorations and stop wearing Christmas clothing while working with the children because many families had complained about the school's lack of "religious neutrality."

School administrators had "been receiving complaints from parents concerning District employees displaying 'Christmas' themed decorations and/or wearing clothing of the same nature," the memo said, as reported by The Daily Wire. "If you have decorated your bus with anything specific to the Christmas Holiday or any other decorations relating to a specific religion, please remove them immediately. In addition, employees are instructed not to wear clothing related to Christmas or any other religious holiday."

In response to the memo, multiple bus drivers complained about the order, and it quickly gained traction online, which led to even more outrage in the school district's direction. Parents on the school district's Facebook expressed their concern, writing, "MERRY CHRISTMAS you Christian hating libs" and "Attn bus drivers: 'Please don't forget to cover your bus in pride flags and wear you pride clothing in June!'" Wallingford-Swarthmore Superintendent Wagner Marseille quickly took action and reversed the decision, explaining that the memo was the result of a miscommunication.

"In response to community concerns I have received about religious neutrality, I reminded the Supervisor of Transportation to remind you to find a balance of the District's attempts to be inclusive of a diverse range of holiday traditions," Marseille wrote in a letter, per ABC 13 News. "To the extent that this reminder led to the communication that decorations and songs typically associated with the Christmas holiday were not permitted, this was not the intent, and efforts have been made internally to clarify this point to avoid any confusion moving forward."

"I did not intend -- in any way -- for drivers to feel they needed to turn off the holiday music, take down all the decorations, or not wear any holiday clothing," the superintendent said in a follow-up email to parents. "I want to be abundantly clear that we are not in any way trying to remove all signs of Christmas from our school buses or our schools."

Thankfully, the school district quickly reversed its decision to go to war against Christmas. Whether or not it was a legitimate miscommunication or not, concerned parents did the right thing in speaking out against the decision and ensuring that the holiday decor stayed up on the district's school buses.

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