Biola Bans Harry Potter for Halloween Season
In an interesting move, the leadership of Biola University has decided to ban the Harry Potter franchise from its campus for the latter part of October.
“We decided that the characters and storyline, while promoting friendship and teamwork, do not honor Biola's culture and are not as important as other books such as Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia,” said spokeswoman Emma Waysard in an announcement on Monday. “During the Halloween season when it is typical to celebrate ‘witchcraft and wizardry’, we want our students to spend their time differently.”
Waysard continued to state that J.K. Rowling’s books and the DVDs would be removed from the library on Wednesday. When asked if the ban will be well-received by students, Waysard replied that she hopes everyone will benefit spiritually from the decision.
“This is a time of the year to begin reflecting on the beautiful harvest in our lives,” stated Waysard. “It would be beneficial for Biola’s community to distance itself from the pagan culture for a few weeks.”
Other staff members at the meeting outlined plans for enforcing the ban. Costumes resembling characters from the series will be not be allowed on campus, and internet access to sites such as Pottermore and the Harry Potter wiki will be restricted during the week of Halloween.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” said senior Maggie Quand at a student government meeting yesterday. “A lot of my friends really like these books. I think it is infringing upon several fundamental rights to say we can’t access them.”
Maggie is one of the several students who expressed dislike for the policy, especially the proposed search of dormitories to remove any Hogwarts-related material. “I know we like to live within the ‘Biola bubble’ but this is going a bit too far,” she added.
Regardless of student opinion, the operation has already slowly started ramping up. The DVDs and books in the Biola library are nowhere to be found. Fan sites for the series are, one by one, failing to load. Online lecture recordings referencing the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermoine have been significantly edited or removed entirely.
As recently as Tuesday afternoon, officials escorted a young boy wearing a Harry Potter costume off of the campus. The boy was about five years old and was with his mother at the time. “I just wanted to show my older brother my Harry Potter costume,” the boy said afterwards between sniffs, rubbing at his eyes underneath his thick round glasses. “I don’t think I’m going to wear it now.”
When contacted about the costume incident, spokeswoman Emma Waysard declined to comment. Members of Biola leadership stated that if the overall ban does not meet any negative reaction, it may be enforced year-round.
