Sacred Celtic Order of Balance Church

Student Suspended for Casting a Spell

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - A 15-year-old girl who claims to be a witch was suspended from school this week after another girl accused the high-school freshman of casting a spell on her, school officials said Thursday.

Jamie Schoonover, who has been taunted by fellow classmates for her overt adherence to the neo pagan Wicca religion, was sent home for the day after an incident that occurred outside Baltimore's Southwestern High School on Tuesday morning.

The other girl heard from a third student that Schoonover had put a "hex" on her. She started crying and ran to school administrators, who later held a two-hour meeting with both girls and their families.

Schoonover's suspension slip cited her for "casting a spell on a student."

Baltimore schools officials later pronounced the whole thing a misunderstanding and said Schoonover's suspension order should have cited her for making an alleged verbal threat.

Schoonover, whose father is a 45-year-old transsexual named Colleen Harper, stands out at school because she wears all-black clothing and is a devotee of gloomy "Goth" rock music, school officials said. Her family says she is also bisexual.

Harper, who describes herself as a witch as well, told reporters at the school that this week's incident was only the latest in a series of encounters in which her daughter had been taunted and threatened.