No Messiah for West Brook Middle School: Alex Woinski was sent home for dressing as Jesus Christ for Halloween.
Actually, the Paramus school just wanted him to change, but it wasn't as easy as that: Woinski's costume was particularly elaborate--the Bergen Record reports that the eighth-grader already "has shoulder-length brown hair" so he "donned a long white robe with a red sash, a fake beard, sandals and a crown of thorns." His mother explained, "They would have let him wear the costume, but he had to get rid of the crown of thorns and the beard," which meant she had to leave work and take her son home to shower. He returned to school later.
Principal Joan Broe told WCBS 2, "I don't think I overreacted," noting that the costume's, uh, class-stopping qualities--and not the religious nature--was why Woinski was sent home. "Children were [asking], where is the boy who is Jesus Christ? It was disrupting the education process." As for why he chose the costume? Alex Woinski has reportedly grown interested in Jesus Christ recently (his mother is Catholic and father is Jewish), plus his friends said his long hair made him look like J.C.
Flashback: A Brooklyn student was reprimanded for dressing as Hitler at Leon M. Goldstein High School on Halloween in 2006. The school decided to ban any and all Halloween costumes last year.
