This day in history: Garfield School in Spokane opted for boxes in classrooms rather than Christmas trees

From 1974: The jury in the Ricky Young murder trial heard testimony that Young mailed a pipe bomb to a Pasco judge “because he was fearful of the judge’s revoking his earlier probation.”

Young earlier appeared before Judge James Lawless on a burglary charge. The judge gave him a 15-year sentence but suspended most of it and gave him a year in county jail and probation. Young later violated his probation when he was charged with two counts of arson.

A witness for the prosecution testified that Young’s fingerprints had been found on a small scrap of paper recovered at the bombing scene.

From 1924: Spokane school district’s superintendent endorsed a plan to celebrate Christmas in classrooms without Christmas trees.

The plan was the idea of the principal of Garfield School, James Burke.

“Boxes decorated by the pupils will be used in the rooms instead of the customary Christmas trees,” said the Chronicle.

The reason: forest conservation.

Putting Christmas trees in hundreds of schoolrooms “seems a terrible waste to me,” Burke said.

Citing his support for forest conservation, the district’s superintendent, Orville Pratt, said he liked the idea because it would “cut down the waste.”

“Many of the schools have already made their plans for Christmas and I would not go so far as prohibiting the use of the trees in the school celebrations, but I do think it would be a fine thing if other schools would adopt the Garfield plan,” Pratt said.