This is not a posting about stuff that happened at a school, but rather is about how a fanatical right-wing legal group totally and completely misrepresented what actually happened, simply to maintain their funding and status as “champions for Christianity”. Yes, I know, a right-wing religious group blatantly misrepresenting something for $$$ is something you have never come across before, you are “totally shocked” … right?
Well yes, it’s BAU (Business As Usual) for this group of bigots, but I would still like to call it out and spotlight what happened, so let’s get into the details now.
What exactly was “Witchy Wednesday”?
Our story starts with West Orange High School in Winter Garden, Florida. Oh come now, with the name “West Orange” it can only be Florida. So anyway, they have set up WOWTV, a student created mini-news channel on YouTube. There you will find student created and produced clips of literally everything and anything …
- The Pledge
- The weather
- French club
- Summer tryouts
- Volleyball updates
- etc …
… basically a School News channel and also a great idea that enables students get a bit of experience editing and producing media content.
One student did a 90 second segment titled “Witchy Wednesday”. It was basically one student sharing this …
Good morning, witches and warriors… Today is Wednesday, September 10th, and this is our first episode of Witchy Wednesday. I am here to guide you through your magical midweek journey every Wednesday.
To start, there was a New Moon yesterday on September 9th. Normally regarded as a blank state and a new start, this phase invites introspection and intention setting. Simple things to honor this phase could be to write your intentions and bury them, or just meditate for an energy reset and healing.
There is a full moon coming up on September 18th, where the energy is at its highest peak. Creating simple things like moon water and releasing rituals are good ways to cleanse and recharge yourself during this period.
In other news, our first ever witch tip spotlight is a spell for enlightenment that I call “light of insight.” Its purpose is all about inviting clarity, wisdom, and light into your life. You will need a white candle, paper, pen, and incense.
You can burn your incense around your area of practice to clear your surrounding energy for a start. You write your intuition down on your paper, fold it three times. Burn your paper into your white candle. Burn it completely and entirely to have your intention released into the universe.
That itself is your light of insight at work. You then cleanse the space around you once more to finalize your spell.
That’s all for today, warriors. Have a wicked Wednesday.
You know what happens next don’t you.
Some “Loving” Christian parents freaked out and went full nuclear over it by tipping off right-wing Christian group Liberty Counsel.
They in turn, on Sep 18th, sent a letter to the school district with demands …
We write to XXXXXX (“XXX”or “the District”) to inform that (1)other students, who may wish to share their Christian religious beliefs, may not be denied an opportunity to do so in a similar manner to the “Witchy Wednesday”video segment detailed below(i.e., within the morning announcements, receiving an opportunity to explain their faith in Jesus Christ; how performing certain rituals may be wrong according to the Bible and harmful to one’s mental health and relationship with God; how a person can cleanse themselves from the effects of sin by seeking forgiveness of God; and other Christian religious doctrines); and (2)that all students and staff who wish to opt out of listening to further episodes of “Witchy Wednesday” (or future student religious content)must be afforded an opportunity to do so
They were basically playing a card pulled directly from the Satanic Temple’s deck, but in reverse – “Since you are permitting one belief access to a mic, then you also need to extend that access to other beliefs such as Christianity“and also create an opt-out.
I really hate to say it, but the legal argument that Liberty Council are using is actually correct. Interestingly enough, they did not demand that the clip should be removed. They did also demand a response to their letter by September 30th.
OK, so far nothing to be too concerned about here.
Ah but wait, this is Liberty Council, an anti-LGBT hate group that earned that label by suggesting that gay people are all pedophiles. They tend to bend both truth, decency, and integrity in a manner that leaves many contortionists feeling jealous. Oh and they have also been representing Kim Davis for the past decade.
So what did they do next, wait for a response perhaps?
Nope.
The Press Release & Media outreach
On Sept 22nd they decided to put out a press release claiming that the school was promoting Witchcraft …
To ensure it was not missed, they also ensured that all the local media got a copy.
Their claim within the press release is a gross distortion. You can clearly see that one student did a session at one school un-prompted and probably un-supervised by school staff, the claim that the school district was “promoting witchcraft” is a lie.
The formal Response
Having seen the press release, a formal response on Sept 23 went back by the district…
I am in receipt of your letter dated September 18, 2025, regarding “Witchy Wednesday” on the morning announcements at West Orange High School.
We have reviewed the segment in question and confirmed that it did take place. We have since instructed the school to cease “Witchy Wednesday” segments from the morning announcements. No further segments of this nature will take place.
They also explain example why …
In your letter, you referred to “Witchy Wednesday” as “religious instruction (whether delivered by the school as purported government speech, or by a student as religious speech).” We have decided to stop the “Witchy Wednesday” segment based upon the rulings in two Supreme Court decisions.
The first is Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000).
(They then explain that case, the ruling and precise details)
Consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Santa Fe, we do not want any student, whether Christian or non-Christian, to feel like they are outsiders and not full members of the political community at West Orange High School. As such, we can no longer allow the segment in question to continue.
The other Supreme Court case allowing us to cease broadcasting the segment is Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988). In that case, students sued the school district for deletion of two pages of articles from the May 13, 1983 edition of the school newspaper. The school newspaper was funded by allocated funds from the budget of the Board of Education. Supplies were paid for by the Board. The newspaper was produced as part of the school’s Journalism class. Id. at 262-263.
The class teacher delivered page proofs to the principal three days before publication. The principal objected to two articles scheduled to appear in the edition. One described students’ experience with pregnancy. The other discussed the impact of divorce on students at the school. The principal made the decision to delete the two pages from the paper and publish a four-page newspaper rather than a six-page newspaper. The students sued, claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated. Id. at 263-264.
(a lot more detail on this ruling follows within their letter)
Did they let it go at that?
Hell no, Liberty was taking liberties, so a few more “words” were wholly appropriate …
Finally, I must express my disappointment with how this matter has been handled. Your letter was sent to me on September 18, 2025, and requested a response by September 30, 2025. (See page 5 of the letter: “We are requesting a written response to Liberty Counsel by September 30, 2025.”)
Yet, prior to your requested deadline to respond, your letter was obtained by local media outlets (WESH 2 and The Orlando Sentinel.) I also understand that your organization issued a press release regarding the matter. Furthermore, the front page of lc.org has the following headline “Florida High School Promotes Witchcraft,” along with a link to a copy of your letter.
The manner in which this matter was handled was surprising, given that both our organizations share the same goal to ensure that all students have their First Amendment free exercise rights respected.
A few Final Thoughts
We live in a world where Christianity as practised by many on the right-wing, promotes intolerance, bigotry, and hate. If it actually promoted tolerance, peace, and did not demonise so many, they honestly, nobody would be all hat bothered by the existence of a school Bible club running alongside a school French club.
Sadly, because so many within the belief remain on high alert ready to be offended at anything and everything that is not them, we need a rather robust wall of separation to create neutral territory, one that is designed to hold back the tide of intolerance and bigotry that laps at our shores and threatens us all.
“Liberty Counsel” sounds like a law firm, but the act like a sermon with a subpoena.
Founded by Mat and Anita Staver, it’s a legal wing of America’s Christian nationalist movement — a group that insists on “religious freedom” while spending most of its time fighting everyone else’s. They’ve defended clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses (yea, as I mentioned earlier, Kim Davies is their poster child for fundraising – help us protect this bigot by send us your money), crusaded to keep the utterly bogus pseudo-scientific conversion therapy alive (despite that now being demonstrated to be utterly ineffective and a “therapy” that frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm), and declared that public health restrictions during COVID were an attack on Christianity itself. Over one million people died in the US and up to one third of those deaths were preventable, but that happened because of utter lunatics like this.
For an organization supposedly obsessed with “truth,” Liberty Counsel has a long record of promoting myths — as I mentioned just above, from claiming gay people can be “cured” to warning that equal rights are a plot to destroy the church. Their idea of liberty only seems to apply to people who pray, vote, and marry the way they do.
It’s less a legal ministry and more a nostalgia machine for the days when “religious freedom” meant freedom for one religion only. If hypocrisy were a constitutional right, Liberty Counsel would be its most passionate defender. This “Witchy Wednesday” saga has been simply one more data point that confirms all this.