KIRO NEWSRADIO OPINION

Gee & Ursula: Lakewood’s ‘lewd’ Halloween skeleton display has been stolen

Oct 30, 2023, 5:33 PM | Updated: 5:44 pm

skeleton lewd lakewood...

(Photo from KIRO 7)

(Photo from KIRO 7)

Trick-or-treaters in Lakewood won’t be seeing a Halloween display featuring skeletons in erotic positions after it had allegedly been stolen. The skeleton-themed display was drawing controversy over the weekend after some parents called it “inappropriate” as it appeared next to a local elementary school.

A display of skeletons at a house near Idlewild Elementary showed skeletons in suggestive positions and a sign that reads, “Dear Karen, challenge accepted. next year, try polite.” Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin talked about the controversy, with disagreements about how scandalous the skeletons are.

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The school placed a fence around the display, trying to block the scene from the view of local students. Some neighbors were upset with the display, while others said that the display wasn’t anything that kids weren’t already exposed to.

“With what the kids have access on their cellphones nowadays, that’s PG. They get everything and anything, even if they have parental locks on their phones. They find their ways around everything,” parent Dustin Dougherty told KIRO 7.

“There’s a time and a place for these kinds of things, and that’s an adult thing right there. So, for children, no. I just don’t accept that,” neighbor Victoria Obrley told KIRO 7.

On The Gee & Ursula show Monday, Ursula took aim at both sides for the attention this dispute has generated.

“The neighbor is being very childish … I think he needs to grow up,” Ursula said. “But I also think the school is making worse by putting the big plastic barrier around … Now you’re going to have kids asking all sorts of questions.”

More from Ursula: Does grammar still matter? Not according to UW

Gee called this “one of those topics that … I’m mad that I’m mad about it.”

But he also agreed with the parents, saying that the display was too mature for kids in the area and said that it forced parents into uncomfortable conversations with kids who may be too young for the content.

“Imagine if I invite you, Gabby, Alice and Matthew to my house. Your little two little kids are in my house. Can you come in?” Gee said to producer Andrew “Chef” Lanier. “We’ve got candy and stuff for the kids. And then when you get there, I have a Halloween display in my living room of exactly what you see right there. You cool with that?”

Chef said he would find the display entertaining, and said that it was pretty tame.

“Yeah, I’d probably chuckle I don’t think it’s a big deal. I don’t know,” Chef said. “I don’t understand the outrage over this at all.”

“Are we so scared of sex in this society?” Chef continued. “If you take him to the petting zoo and you see a couple animals together? Like what is the big deal? We just can’t talk about it. We’re a bunch of Puritans in this country.”

Idlewild Elementary said that they are working with the city council and police to resolve the issue.

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