28. Witchcraft Humor Flew Over Many Heads in Flowing Wells, Arizona
In 1970, to heighten her students’ interest in literature, Ann Stewart suggested that they find out what astrology is all about. That further enhanced the rumors about her involvement with the occult. Later that year, a junior high school teacher invited her to speak before her eighth-graders about folklore and witchcraft. As part of the presentation, Mrs. Stewart dressed up and played the part of a witch. When those eighth-graders arrived in Flowing Wells High School that fall, many of them fueled the rumors that Mrs. Stewart really was a witch. The English teacher thought it was all good fun, but Flowing Wells was a particularly conservative community. Many students, their parents, and faculty members at the high school did not get the joke.