Cross-Dressing Day at Pineview Elementary

This was much ado about absolutely nothing.

REEDSBURG, Wis. (AP) -- An elementary-school event in which kids were encouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of a Christian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to the district office.

Students at Pineview Elementary had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex.

A local resident informed the Voice of Christian Youth America on Friday. The Milwaukee-based radio network responded by interrupting its morning programming for a special broadcast that aired on nine radio stations throughout Wisconsin. The broadcast criticized the dress-up day and accused the district of promoting alternative lifestyles.

"We believe it's the wrong message to send to elementary students," said Jim Schneider, the network's program director. "Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error."

Schneider co-hosts "Crosstalk," a nationally syndicated call-in Christian radio show, along with Vic Eliason and Ingrid Schlueter.

"We became aware of this from constituents in your area. Anything that concerns the populace is important enough to talk about," Eliason said. "This is tax-funded - this is not a dress-up party in somebody's house. There are parents, taxpayers who do not appreciate the imposition of a particular lifestyle being portrayed as a normal lifestyle for the kids."

After the program aired, both the school and Reedsburg School District office were flooded with calls complaining about the event.

The response surprised Principal Tammy Hayes, who said no one had raised any objections beforehand. She said a flier detailing Wacky Week had been sent home with children the prior week, and an announcement was also included in teacher newsletters.

"Nobody contacted me," Hayes said.

The dress-up day was not an attempt to promote cross-dressing, homosexuality or alternative gender roles, district administrator Tom Benson said.

"The promotion of transgenderism - that was not our purpose," Benson said. "Our purpose was to have a Wacky Week, mixing in a bit of silliness with our reading, writing and arithmetic."

The theme for Friday's dress-up day came from students, Hayes said. The Wacky Week schedule was created by Pineview's Student Senate with the guidance of secretary Shari Miller.

"It's different every year. They basically present the ideas, and they vote on what they would like from Monday through Friday," Hayes said. "I feel awful for the kids and Shari. They did not mean anything by this day. They were trying to have fun and come up with a fun dress-up day."

Good grief.

The people who flooded Pineview with calls objecting to the costume day need to get a grip.

Dressing up as the opposite sex in this context is funny. When did it become a promotion of an alternative lifestyle?

Back in the 1950s, was Mr. Television Milton Berle urging people to be transvestites? I think that was comedy.

The Three Stooges donned women's clothes plenty of times. That was supposed to be comedy, too.

On I Love Lucy, Lucy and Ethel disguised themselves as men on more than one occasion. It was funny.

And what about the classic movie Some Like it Hot? Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis weren't campaigning to get men to dress like women. Again, it was a comedy.

Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire is another example.

Are these examples of threats to family values? To the contrary, they're examples of family entertainment.

I don't consider any of these instances or the dress-up day at Pineview Elementary to be an "imposition of a particular lifestyle being portrayed as a normal lifestyle for the kids."

The kids were participating in WACKY WEEK. That's WACKY WEEK, as in silly.

This wasn't about cross-dressing as a lifestyle. It was about wearing a costume.

About 40 percent of the student body dressed up Friday, Hayes estimated, with half portraying senior citizens and half dressing as the opposite sex.

"I can assure you we will not be having this day (again)," Hayes said.

Instead of getting bent out of shape over dressing as the opposite sex, why weren't people offended by the kids being encouraged to dress as senior citizens?

That could open up a can of negative stereotypical worms, potentially mocking the elderly.

It's obvious that the Christian radio group targeted Pineview because of its agenda against alternative lifestyles such as transgenderism or transvestism.

I don't think the outraged listeners had any reason to be troubled by the dress-up day at Pineview.

Their argument that tax dollars were being used to support something that attacked traditional family values is really a stretch.

This dress-up activity for the kids was meant to be a harmless, fun event, not a social or cultural statement. It wasn't an assault on family values. It was not a lesson in the rejection of traditional roles. It was a WACKY costume day.

The outrage of the complainers was uncalled for. They should be embarrassed about their inappropriate reactions to something so innocent.