No Santa Claus at the North Pole? Photo: Matti Mattila, Flickr
This year, the postal service won't be delivering letters to Santa -- at least, not at the North Pole.
For generations, children have written breathless letters to Santa Claus in the hopes that he will fulfill their deepest desires on Christmas Day. And since 1954, the U.S. Postal Service has employed volunteers to read and respond to the letters that are addressed simply to "Santa Claus, North Pole." But no more. Citing privacy concerns, the U.S. Postal Service will no longer deliver such letters to the volunteers in North Pole, Alaska.
What would move the U.S. Postal Service to put an end to such a popular and seemingly harmless program? The answer is a registered sex offender thousands of miles away.
Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized a local Operation Santa Claus volunteer as a registered sex offender. The sex offender was stopped before being allowed to respond to any children's letters, but the damage was done.
As a result, new policies were put in place that prohibit volunteers from having access to the personal information of the children who write the letters. As part of the Operation Santa Claus program, the Postal Service now removes the last name and addresses of the children and replaces that information with codes that match computerized information available only to the post office. Individual post offices are allowed to decide whether or not they wish to go through all this trouble and many of them still do.
But the Alaska town of North Pole is not one of those places. According to a Postal Service spokesperson in Anchorage, the new restrictions are just not feasible in Alaska. Now, letters that are generically address to "Santa Claus, North Pole" will no longer be forwarded to the volunteers in the Alaska town of North Pole. Instead, they will be sent to other sites that are still participating in the Operation Santa program.
Despite the fact that North Pole, Alaska, isn't answering Christmas letters shouldn't stop kids from writing to Santa. Children can still send letters to Santa and receive responses through local Operation Santa programs. But those who are expecting an official "North Pole" post mark on their letters from Santa will be disappointed.
Is this good protection for kids, or just an overzealous, knee-jerk reaction? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Lisa,11-20-2009, 12:23PM
Why can't the post office just screen the volunteers. Is it that hard to run a check of the volunteers through the sex offender database? Or maybe have a couple of volunteers who are screened who have the envelopes with the addresses, and the volunteers writing the letters just have the number that matches the envelope. That way only a few people need to be screened, and they spend their time putting the letters in envelopes while the unscreened volunteers do the writing. It's not that hard. I see their concern, but there are MANY other ways of continuing the program without the hassle that has caused North Pole, AK to withdraw. What a shame.
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Pat,11-20-2009, 7:38PM
Working in the proscecutors office of my county, I am gradually becoming convinced that there is an agenda to convict EVERYBODY of being a sex offender. Laws change due to a panic reflex every time. One person causes this panic reflex "mob mentality" and completely overrides rational thinking. A registered sex offender is snomeone who has done his/her time and is abiding by the local laws of his/her area. I personally am more frightened by someone with a knife, loaded gun, or other weapon than I am of someone with a loaded penis.
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