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The Salem Witch Museum tells me they will offer complementary tickets to all seniors visiting as part of a planned class trip next summer after a Batavia City Schools board member, who also works as a pastor, voted against the trip because he didn’t want kids going to a “Satanic” venue.
I first reported on this issue a few weeks ago.
Seniors at Batavia High School in New York had asked the school board to approve a class trip to Boston next summer, and it should have been a formality. The students would fundraise to lower costs. And their draft itinerary, which included the famous Duck Tour, a dinner cruise, and a stop at the Salem Witch Museum, looked fantastic.
But during the board meeting, Dan Schmidt, who serves as lead pastor at the Batavia Assembly of God Church, couldn’t get past the idea of students visiting a “witch museum.”
He said Christians wouldn’t want to go and that they would feel excluded if their friends went—even though 1) this was a draft itinerary subject to change, and 2) the museum doesn’t encourage witchcraft. It chronicles the infamous “witch trials” from the 1600s and highlights the problem with “witch hunts” in general. It’s educational! The museum teaches us what can happen when people look for outcasts to blame for everything that goes wrong, leading to mass hysteria, false accusations, and needless violence.
Despite everyone else trying to explain that to him, Schmidt held firm during the board meeting, refusing to listen to voices of reason.
He later admitted to a reporter, “I can't really say that I know the history of it.” Nevertheless, he added, “I think Jesus would frown on this” and that he just didn’t think visiting the museum was “the healthiest choice for our students.”
He was the lone vote against approving the trip.
But the good news was that the other board members weren’t as ignorant and approved the trip, so there were no other obstacles in the students’ way.
Deanna King, a mother of one of the students helping organize the trip, began a fundraiser after that board meeting. (She also made a fantastic video highlighting the absurdity of Schmidt’s comments.) The money was initially just going to cover the cost of museum tickets—but she raised enough that she could even help lower the cost of the entire trip in general. That alone is incredible.
Over the past few days, though, myself, Deanna, and administrators at the museum have been in contact to see if there’s anything more we can to to help these students out, and I’m thrilled to announce that the Salem Witch Museum will offer free tickets to all the Batavia seniors who visit during their class trip.
Rachel Christ-Doane, the museum’s Director of Education, told me they’ve never seen this particular type of backlash where an entire group was discouraged from visiting. But when museum administrators saw this story gaining traction, they knew immediately that they wanted to give the students free tickets. “It was a no-brainer,” she told me.
They got overwhelmed with work—for some reason, the museum gets swamped before Halloween—but as soon as they could, they reached out, and it didn’t take long for both groups to hammer out the details.
It’s not just a publicity stunt either; As Christ-Doane reiterated, this is an educational museum. If students want to spend their time learning about this particular aspect of American history, the museum wants to welcome them with open arms.
It’s worth mentioning that the museum will be closed early next year for renovations, so when they reopen, and when those students visit, there will be new and improved exhibits for them to experience. It’ll be unforgettable.
Since the museum tickets will be free, that also means the full amount Deanna has raised can go toward lowering the cost of the trip for students who may not be able to afford it—or covering the full cost for a handful of kids. She told me in a statement that this blew up in the best possible way:
What started with one school board member’s comments has turned into something much bigger. There’s also a little irony in Salem, of all places, responding to fear and misinformation with education, generosity and kindness.
These seniors now have the chance to make memories and learn the history for themselves, which is exactly what education is supposed to be about.
She’s right, of course. The trip is meant to be both fun and educational—a last hurrah for the students before they go their separate ways—and thankfully, they can now focus on planning the best possible trip and not worry about what one ignorant board member has to say about any of this.
Dan Schmidt did not respond to my request for comment.
Now there’s a pastor who does not know history. Those people, my 9th great-grandmother included, were victims of fear and ignorance. Nothing Satanic to see here.
How is it possible to so completely ignorant of the history of the Salem witch murders? How is it possible for someone so ignorant to be on a school board?
Has South Park been alerted?