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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Killjoys cancelling Halloween--is this the new normal?
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Anonymous
| Just heard that my kids elementary school is not doing Halloween in the name of equity. Some families don't celebrate and they wanted to be inclusive. Instead it will be "dress like your favorite book character day" but no ghosts, ghouls, vampires, or dementors allowed. No parade or Halloween-themes crafts. I'm wondering if this is widespread throughout the county or if our school principal is uniquely anti-fun. |
Anonymous
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OMG you can not be serious.
Do Halloween with your neigbors. My kids are grown we already have a covid plan. Our kids will have tons of fun while yours will watch you whine. |
Anonymous
| Will masks be allowed, though? |
Anonymous
| Equity.. nope. We are not doing Halloween because of covid. I don't need your kid bringing covid to me when I'm not sending my kids to in person school. Some families don't celebrate halloween and our ES would have a separate room for them to read in and it was pretty unfair vs. doing a general fall party. You don't need to dress up in school. Its kida silly. |
Anonymous
| Our school doesn't celebrate, because lots of kids didn't come to school when it was celebrated in the past for religious and cultural reasons. We do celebrate Halloween, but it seems totally appropriate to me. If a big part of the community doesn't want to take part of it, don't make it a community celebration. It's not like there's not plenty of other ways and times to celebrate Halloween. |
Anonymous
| This kind of thing drives me crazy because dressing up isn’t necessarily free. How is it equity to add one more costume request to a family budget? |
Anonymous
| Our MCPS elementary is celebrating halloween - parade, class party but no parents allowed to the party. |
Anonymous
Wonder if we go to the same school. I just got the same email and I’m fuming. It’s ridiculous. The principal banned GHOSTS but student can wear Harry Potter costumes. |
Anonymous
| Ridiculous. |
Anonymous
PPabove. The principal is also allowed fun games for thirty minutes as long as there are absolutely no Halloween games. For real. |
Anonymous
| It’s the anti-culture wars. Apparently we aren’t allowed to have a dominant culture anymore because of equity. I don’t think the woke left realizes there will be nothing left to bring people together if all we do is cancel everything. |
Anonymous
| Our Elem school in moco isn’t do it either. They do a trunk or treat after hours. But nothing during the school day. We are at a Christian private now for 4th snd they call it a Fall Festival but kids dress up and do a parade. Costumes cannot be scary. |
Anonymous
Huh, so my schools in rural NC that didn't celebrate Halloween because of all the Christians who objected were part of the "woke left"? They'll be surprised to hear that |
Anonymous
Ha. But this raises a good point. It's a problem to cancel it because of the Christians for the same reason it's a problem to cancel it because of the woke left. I just posted this in the other thread on this but pasting here as well: As someone who is VERY concerned about equity, this cancelling Halloween business really pisses me off. It gives actual, important equity measures a bad name while eliminating one of the few remaining, old-fashioned joys of American childhood. If there's an actual concern about equity, I would recommend that the kids be allowed to make costumes in school as part of art class OR that the PTA send around a note encouraging home made costumes and providing some helpful links to things that can be made from simple articles in the home OR that the school counselor host a halloween closet (as they sometimes do for food or winter coats) to which families can donate costumes and kids in need of costumes can come pick one out, on the DL if they prefer. As for the religion question: The fact that some people have a religious issue with Halloween doesn't mean it should be cancelled for everyone, full stop. Doing so creates a very troubling precedent. Halloween as it's practiced today is simply not a religious holiday, full stop. I realize that it may still be a bridge too far for some people who have extreme religious beliefs, and it's absolutely appropriate that they be allowed to sit out things that make them uncomfortable. It is NOT appropriate for there discomfort to lead to the cancellation of those things for everyone else. I don't care if we're talking about sex ed, or the teaching of evolution, or, yes, Halloween. We simply cannot be a thriving, vital, pluralistic democracy if we put an end to everything that someone has a problem with. |
Anonymous
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