Pumsy Program Back With New Rules

After seven months of debate and litigation, Pumsy the dragon will still breathe fire in Everett schools but with a slight wheeze, after an agreement was reached between Everett School District and eight parents who filed a lawsuit in July.

The lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial in June, had sought to ban use of "Pumsy in Pursuit of Excellence," a social-skills curriculum that uses the green cartoon dragon, Pumsy, to boost self-esteem in elementary students.

The agreement, which will be concluded this week, says all schools can teach Pumsy but, before teaching it, schools now must describe the program to parents, allow them to review it and inform them of their right to withdraw their children from the program.

The exception, however, is Cedar Wood Elementary, where the lawsuit originated. Cedar Wood will teach Pumsy on an "opt-in" basis: Pumsy will be taught only to students whose parents actively request the program for their children.

Used in more than 16,000 schools in the United States, the curriculum was designed by its Oregon-based author for students with low self-esteem. It has been challenged 40 times in the past four years.

In the storybook, Pumsy occasionally falls into a funk called "mud mind." Pumsy pulls herself up by thinking of wildflowers and "sparkler mind," and saying things like "I am me" and "I am enough."

It is designed to teach children how to manage conflict, think clearly and make good choices.

The parents, whose children attended Cedar Wood Elementary last year, said Pumsy amounted to group psychotherapy, hypnosis, meditation and guided imagery.

The parents criticized the district for teaching Pumsy "indiscriminately" to children in six of its elementary schools without parental consent.

Some parents were upset that Pumsy taught "situational values" based on how one felt rather than on what is right or wrong.

Randy Trettevik, a parent of three children at Cedar Wood, and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Pumsy was "psychological counseling" that may benefit at-risk students but is inappropriate for all students.

"Some of the techniques like hypnosis can be very powerful and, at the same time, very dangerous, when it is applied without properly trained assessment of a child," said Trettevik, 35, whose children were not taught Pumsy last year.

Dick Hanson, Everett assistant superintendent for instruction, said he was satisfied with the agreement.

"I'm glad that we were able to arrive at some agreement," said Hanson. "It (the agreement) is in keeping with the district's interest to keep parents involved."

District policy had always allowed parents to withdraw their child from Pumsy.

But no letter was ever sent to parents telling them of the program, Hanson said, because the district felt "the material was of such a nature that it would not be questioned."