Elementary school students, holiday-season performances, human sacrifice: one of the three just doesn’t belong. When Pleasantville Elementary School administrators in Pleasantville, Pennsylvania, began planning the school’s holiday performance they ran into some pretty angry parents.


Students participating in the eerie pageant were supposed to act out scenes from the world cultures they had spent a month studying. All was well until parents learned that their children would be reenacting Aztec human sacrifices. That’s right while most students sing “All I Want for Christmas” in December, Pleasantville’s children were reenacting murder. Luckily, the school was thoughtful enough to cancel the gruesome performance.


According to parent Keith Klinger, “I had no problem with it up until the violent content of the human sacrifices.” PTA leader Janice Duquette agrees: “Violence doesn’t belong in school, and does not need to be portrayed in school theater.”