The Costume Too Scary for Halloween
Nov. 15, 2001 -- -- Some call high school a dress rehearsal for life. If that's true, Christian Silbereis will forever be remembered as the kid who showed up for the Halloween party in the vagina costume.
Two weeks ago, The Wolf Files reported that Community High School officials in Ann Arbor, Mich., suspended Silbereis for showing up at the school's midday costume party in a satin and lace rendering of female genitalia — but not before he won first prize from students for his costume.
This week, The Wolf Files checks back with Silbereis and his family, and readers offer their views of the situation. Did the school act too harshly? Should the boy's parents be faulted for letting him go to school like that? And what does this episode say about our society?
Silbereis is now back to attending classes after his brush with controversy.
"The other kids aren't really teasing me. I'm glad to be back in school," he says.
"Maybe some of the teachers now regard me as a troublemaker. They don't come out and say it. But that's the way it feels. Maybe they look at me differently now."
As a senior, Silbereis hopes to start taking some college classes at the University of Michigan next spring. He wants to major in film or massage therapy.
His story has been in his high school paper, and on TV and radio shows across the country.
"I never expected to get this kind of attention, of course," Silbereis says. "I keep getting calls from friends saying they saw the story up in yada-yada press or wherever and I can hardly believe it."
Teen's Parents Support His Choice
School officials maintain that they didn't suspend the boy for his costume. Rather, Maggie Jewett, the school's assistant dean, went to his class — an elective on psychology and film — and told him to take it off or go home. Silbereis chose to take the costume off.
But when classes ended and students gathered for the party, Silbereis pulled it back on. His classmates were so thrilled that they voted him first prize for best costume.
"I've spoken to teachers and none of them say he was disrupting class," says his stepfather, Malcom Tulip, a writer and actor who runs a drama program at Community High. "Within a few days, some 200 people [in a school of about 450 students] had signed a petition on his behalf."
Tulip says there were calls from radio stations as far away as Alaska. "A lot of them just wanted to hear a youngster say 'vagina' on the air. It was rather silly."
Silbereis' first line of defense: The costume wasn't meant to offend. It was, he repeated to many reporters, anatomically correct. "It's just another body part," he said. "They teach us about it in school."
His mother, Rosalyn Tulip, a midwife, says her son had no intention of offending. "There's nothing inappropriate about what's given all of us life," she says. She says she warned him that some people might be shocked, but allowed him to wear it nevertheless.
Ms. Tulip said it was wrong for Silbereis to put the costume back on once a school official told him to take it off. Her husband says Silbereis might have been more responsive if the teacher had spoken directly to him, rather than complaining to the dean's office. "It's really a case of knee-jerk conservatism," he said.
The parents did not protest the suspension, although Mr. Tulip says they might now ask that it be removed from his record.
Still, school policy still seems a little indiscriminate to Mr. Tulip. "I think it's great that kids use their imagination on Halloween," he says. "But school officials are often in a sticky situation."
He said that one school official complained to him that each Halloween "half the men dress as women and half the women dress as sluts."
It seems like not too many kids want to dress as witches and ghosts anymore. In the wake of school shootings, terrorist attacks, the war in Afghanistan, and sensitivities to all sorts of groups, is Halloween becoming too hot a topic for high school? And if Ms. Tulip was off base to let her son go to school in a vagina costume, where do you draw the line?
Following is a sampling of what readers thought.
Readers Sound Off
• "Schools today are more concerned with being politically correct and catering to the easily offended than they are with teaching our children to be successful adults. Fifty percent of the people in the world have vaginas. To say that I was offended by this costume would be the same as me saying that I am offended at the fact that all women have vaginas." S.H., Garland, Texas
• "That costume is 100% better than one worn here in San Antonio. The 'idiot' here was dressed as the WTC complete with a plane sticking out of his side. That is/was the epitome of SICK, not this young lad's costume." J.B., San Antonio, Texas
• "For Halloween we are suppose to dress up as who/what we admire … or to scare people. Well this costume obviously scared people, and maybe it is something he admires … don't all males?! If people can't face sex, genitalia, or the fact that his costume is part of the reasons we are all hear, then I believe those people should not be teaching or running the school (especially the sex ed classes)." A.C., Herndon, Va.
• "The costume is more embarrassing, I think, than offensive, but I can certainly see how people could be offended by it. A school party is probably not the best venue for such a costume. College, yes, but high school, no, just simply because parents and teachers are so involved in what their kids are exposed to." N.B.-R., Austin, Texas
• "Our bodies are anatomically correct but we are still required to wear clothing." L.A., Jackson, Mich.
• "These [school officials] are the same idiots that will not allow their students display the American flag, pray in school, have the Boy Scouts meet at their local school, all because it might offend some un-American/non-citizen." J.G., Langley, Wash.
• "We all know this kid did this to be cool in front of his peers, it was a big joke and totally inappropriate. It takes a dog to know a dog." Ash, Old Westbury, N.Y.
• "I think if he was asked to take it off he should have left it off. The school does have right to punish him but only because he disobeyed the principal not for the costume. … I think the costume was actually pretty cool myself." K.K., Tallahassee, Fla.
• "I'm a teacher … My opinion? Of course a costume depicting genitals is tasteless and offensive. The fact that offensiveness is a question says volumes about the debased and degraded state of our society. It doesn't surprise me that a school full of teenagers voted it 'best costume,' either — people in that age group are well known for shallow thinking and a lack of mature judgment. Sadly, the parent shows the same sort of judgment as the teenagers." P.A., Galena, Alaska
• "The school was correct. Yes, we all understand the anatomy of the body. There are certain body parts that we don't care to see. I find the display very tasteless and tacky. I hope the punishment for [dressing as] male genitalia would have been the same. As a parent I teach my children that some things are private and modesty is a good policy." T.H., West Monroe, La.
• "Point of information: Christian Silbereis appears to be dressed as a vulva, not a vagina. Vulva: The female external genital organs including the labia, clitoris, and entrance to the vagina (the vestibule of the vagina). Vagina: The muscular canal extending from the cervix to the outside of the body." A.H., New York City
• "That's one nicely made costume. I'd rather see a vagina than kids dressed up as bloody dead people, Osama bin Laden, or any other host of truly offensive characters." A.C., Washington, D.C.
• "The school was not wrong for punishing Silbereis. Shame on the parent also for letting her child wear that to a Halloween party. Is there nothing sacred anymore?" G.B., Orwell, N.Y.
• "Who's kidding who? Sure the genitals are a natural part of the body but as far as I know, our culture has deemed it inappropriate to expose them in public." N.A., San Francisco
• "Unless the administration posts guidelines, any costume is fair game. Would a student be punished for fake eyeballs popping out of the face, or brains gushing out from a rubber knife stuck in a skull? This is just another body part." J.C., New York City
• "I applaud the young man for wearing the vagina costume! The female genitalia has been demonized for far too long … it's time to bring it out into the open." B.D., Austin, Texas
• "Young people see vaginas in artwork and science books, so why could he not be what so many people are afraid (yet desire) to see? Although I understand some of the school's concerns, I do not think it was necessary to suspend him." A.P., Pittsburgh
• "Bottom line, there's a time and place for everything. It's OK at a private Halloween party but not for school. Get a life!" M.H., Plainview, N.Y.
• "It's a sad day in America when we think a walking, talking vagina is anything but funny." A.G., Columbus, Ohio
• "I wouldn't have let my kid where that costume. Schools can't handle religion in schools, so we should know that can't handle sexual costumes." L. L.-B., Florida
• "What message did school administrators send out when they suspended this student? That they have no sense of humor. And would you let your child wear such an outfit for Halloween? Absolutely. Kids are notorious for enjoying shocking people This one sure worked." L.F., Amsterdam, Netherlands
• "During this time of violence and hatred, maybe everyone should be dressing up like vaginas." B.B., Oak Park, Ill.
• "Quite frankly, in a world where passing out condoms to students rather than teaching abstinence is fast becoming the accepted norm, how can they [the school] act surprised at this??" V.S., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
• "Well, haven't we reached a new low. How can any mother think that is appropriate school wear?? If a girl came as a giant penis, I suppose she would have gotten a prize." S.S., South Bend, Wash.
• "I think if they were in Afghanistan, the MOTHER would have been stoned or shot, or worse! I'm not saying this is a GOOD thing!" D.S., Shingle Springs, Calif.
• "I would have hung an appropriate size pair of ladies' panties over that vagina. (I'm joking!) That genitalia was clearly exposed!!! Now you've given the students incentive to come out with the 'male version' next year — look out! L.S., Fort Collins, Colo.
• "Kudos to the school staff for at least recognizing a vagina when they see one ... I get the feeling though that sex education is not a high priority." J.W., Osgood, Mo.
• "With apologies to Dylan Thomas, I'd definitely have to say that the school officials' message to the student was: "Do Not Go GenitallyInto That Good Night" M.O., North Chelmsford, Mass.
Buck Wolf is entertainment producerat ABCNEWS.com. The Wolf Files ispublished Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you want to receive weekly notice whena new column is published, join the e-maillist.