A freshman at Hanover Central High School in Indiana was sent home on Wednesday and Thursday for displaying a pentagram on her cheek when she showed up for class. She relented and stayed home today (Friday).

At first glance this sounds like some reckless behavior on the part of the school, especially in light of the fact that students are not sent home on Ash Wednesday (where Christians typically have dots or crosses marked on their foreheads with ash). But the principal actually has a pretty compelling argument, which for some reason isn't mentioned in the three articles covering the story I linked to above. From the Indianapolis Star:

Andy Pecenke (the father) said he was upset because the school district doesn't send students home for having ashes on their foreheads for Ash Wednesday.

Livovich (the principal) said that was different, however, because it is part of a person's faith. Livovich said he had done some research and found no indication that wearing a pentagram on the face is a part of a person's faith.

"If it was a part of her faith that everyone of her faith does this on May Day, then I would say our apologies to the child and the parent," he said. "But that isn't the case here."

It sounds like if the Christian kids show up on Good Friday with "He is risen indeed" scrawled on their faces they'd be sent home too. Despite my knee-jerk liberal tendencies, I think I'm with the school on this one.