A middle school in New Jersey allowed the students to dress up yesterday. One boy dressed as Jesus. He got sent home.

The school says the costume was a disruption and denies its religious nature had anything to do with it.

You know, serious academics were going on that day. The regular repertoire of witches, ghouls, vampires, ninjas, Indiana Joneses, hippies, Grim Reapers and Sweeny Todds were not in the least bit distracting from the strict regime of core subjects. And the school’s Halloween party was also not in the least bit distracting from school work. The “games” were actually spelling bees, and geography bees and history Jeopardy and pin-the-latin-root-in-the-derivative-box.

But Jesus was a disruption.

Do you think anyone dressed as the Devil?