Teacher suspended for denying Wiccan altar

A Guthrie Center teacher this week received a five-day unpaid suspension for insubordination for not allowing a student to build a Wiccan altar in his shop class - discipline he said he still doesn't agree with.

Dale Halferty, who has taught industrial arts at Guthrie Center High School for three years, said he was asked to meet with the school district superintendent and high school principal when he returns to work Tuesday.

Halferty said Wednesday he still doesn't understand why school officials are forcing him to act against his own beliefs as a Christian and allow the student to disrupt his class with a project based on a religion he believes is wrong and bad for youth.

"Personally, I think it's offensive to worship rocks and trees," Halferty said of Wicca, a religion based on ancient beliefs and a reverence for the Earth. "I am just trying to be moral. I don't know how we can profess to be Christians and let this go on."



Problems started in Halferty's industrial arts class when the student, a senior whom officials have not named, told the teacher the table he was building was actually a Wiccan altar.

After the student told him he was a practicing witch, Halferty said, he told the student he could work on his project but must keep any religious materials at home. He said the student kept returning to class with a book of witchcraft, which prompted him to tell the student he couldn't build the altar in his class.

Halferty has said he previously told another student he could not build a cross in shop class because he believes in the separation of church and state.

Superintendent Steve Smith and Principal Garold Thomas placed Halferty on leave Friday and Monday while they conferred with the school's attorney. They said more than one school policy, and state and federal law, prohibits discriminating against students who express religious beliefs in school assignments.

Almost 70 students signed a petition last week saying they didn't want witchcraft practiced at the school.

Thomas said Halferty has every right to return to his job. But the matter will not likely be over if Halferty still refuses to allow the student to build the altar.

"It's sort of like, what if I had a biology teacher who does not want to teach evolution?" Thomas said. "If a teacher doesn't do the job to which they are assigned, they are insubordinate."

Thomas said if Halferty refuses to go back into the classroom, it will be up to the superintendent to decide what to do next.

Any decision to terminate or fire an employee would have to go through the school board, he said