From the Daily Mail, a case of PC gone mad and the atheist parents are upset about it.  The parents wanted their child excluded from religious education classes, so logically the school administration assumed that they’d also want him excluded from a Christmas party, seeing as Christmas is religious in nature.  One would assume your average postmodern atheist parents would be thrilled.  Not so:

Headmaster Ian Davidson said that because the youngster had no interest in religion he could not celebrate the birth of Christ.

Furious mother Dawn Riddell, 38, said yesterday: “I’ve helped out at the Christmas party before and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. Douglas was heartbroken he couldn’t go. It was cruel.”

The boy and his brother Callum, 11, attend Cluny Primary, a council-run school in Buckie, Banffshire.

As the family have no religious beliefs, Miss Riddell had asked for them to be exempt from RE lessons.

But she was stunned when the head called with the news about the party.

She contacted Moray Council to find out its policy on school parties and was told these were non-religious.

After the council spoke to the school, the decision to exclude Douglas was put down to a “misunderstanding”.

Callum was allowed to attend his party a few days later and Douglas received a present Santa had left behind.

Okay, so it’s not a relgious-themed party, but it was clearly the administration seeking a bit of CYA that actually created a bigger problem.

More (and the comments are priceless…one side, thinks that the parents want to have their cake and eat it too, the other side talks about how Christmas is a “celebration of life and goodwill” regardless of religious connotations or some tripe like that.)