Halloween SICK OUT

[Anonymous]

FWIW, at my kid's school, we only do two parties a year, Halloween and Valentine's Day. Halloween is officially termed "Fall Festival" but the parties are done by the room parents, and it ends up being pretty Halloween-y, between the copious amounts of candy, jack-o-lantern themed crafts and decorations, and everyone being in costumes.

My school does offer an "alternate activity" for the kids who don't/can't participate.

[Anonymous]

Halloween sickout today after eating all that candy!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Halloween sickout today after eating all that candy!!!

LOL. My kids would have been down for that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What we’re really arguing about here is immigration. Schools with a significant majority of immigrants from Central America and Africa are cancelling Halloween because their families think it’s Satanic. Which is ridiculous. I work at one of these schools and I spent a lot of time today mediating discussions between kids who seemed to think their classmates were literal devil worshipers. This is a lie and we teachers should teach them otherwise.

It is Santanic. You are wrong, you offer an alternative.

This is what we are up against. People who are ignorant yet somehow absolutely certain.

“Satanic” would mean an activity that involves worshiping the Judeo-Christian incarnation of evil.

Halloween doesn’t worship anything. It is an ancient pagan festival that was co-opted by the Christian church 1000 years ago.

Halloween is not a religious holiday at all anymore. It’s not Christian, it’s not anything. But you can’t call it Satanic unless you really believe that any holiday that’s not Christian — say, Rosh Hashanah or Diwali or Eid — is Satanic.

For some people, it is and you need to be respectful of their beliefs. Thats like saying Christmas isn't religious.

What? Tell me someone for whom Halloween is religious.

[Anonymous]

In MCPS, it is a school-by-school decision. The cultural make-up of your school needs to be considered. If its really important to you as a teacher, there are plenty of schools that celebrate Halloween in the county. My school, which is in a wealthy and not diverse neighborhood, has over-the-top parties, costumes, and a parade where parents, grandparents, and siblings all come and watch. I mean its fun, but there is pretty much no learning the day of Halloween, and the day after, many kids are upset by the chaos and overstimulation, and other kids stay home because they don't celebrate.

If it is that important to you, you can transfer to a school that celebrates. I think it's a wise decision not to celebrate in a school where it will cause emotions to run high with the parent and student community. We need to be mindful of the cultural beliefs of the community we teach in, it's not up to me to "teach" kids about how they should embrace American culture, my job is to focus on developing academic skills.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What we’re really arguing about here is immigration. Schools with a significant majority of immigrants from Central America and Africa are cancelling Halloween because their families think it’s Satanic. Which is ridiculous. I work at one of these schools and I spent a lot of time today mediating discussions between kids who seemed to think their classmates were literal devil worshipers. This is a lie and we teachers should teach them otherwise.

It is Santanic. You are wrong, you offer an alternative.

This is what we are up against. People who are ignorant yet somehow absolutely certain.

“Satanic” would mean an activity that involves worshiping the Judeo-Christian incarnation of evil.

Halloween doesn’t worship anything. It is an ancient pagan festival that was co-opted by the Christian church 1000 years ago.

Halloween is not a religious holiday at all anymore. It’s not Christian, it’s not anything. But you can’t call it Satanic unless you really believe that any holiday that’s not Christian — say, Rosh Hashanah or Diwali or Eid — is Satanic.

For some people, it is and you need to be respectful of their beliefs. Thats like saying Christmas isn't religious.

What? Tell me someone for whom Halloween is religious.

Jehovah's Witnesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS, it is a school-by-school decision. The cultural make-up of your school needs to be considered. If its really important to you as a teacher, there are plenty of schools that celebrate Halloween in the county. My school, which is in a wealthy and not diverse neighborhood, has over-the-top parties, costumes, and a parade where parents, grandparents, and siblings all come and watch. I mean its fun, but there is pretty much no learning the day of Halloween, and the day after, many kids are upset by the chaos and overstimulation, and other kids stay home because they don't celebrate.

If it is that important to you, you can transfer to a school that celebrates. I think it's a wise decision not to celebrate in a school where it will cause emotions to run high with the parent and student community. We need to be mindful of the cultural beliefs of the community we teach in, it's not up to me to "teach" kids about how they should embrace American culture, my job is to focus on developing academic skills.

Changing schools for ONE celebration? It's not that serious...

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why Valentine's Day is allowed outside of the Family Life and Sexuality policy umbrella. Why are our kids being subjected to group displays of romance?

Don’t worry. Our Focus elementary school also banned Valentine’s Day celebrations at school.

Sounds like the wealthier schools do still celebrate Halloween and Valentine’s Day.

Yeah Valentine's Day went even before Halloween did. It's now "friendship day."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, I saw a woman in a moms facebook group say she was keeping her kid home from school to avoid any Halloween displays. She doesn't want her kid to be exposed to other kids celebrating so she's keeping them home.

Love that the fundos on both sides of this issue will be sitting it out.

My kids don't care about celebrating Halloween in school - they're just looking forward to trick or treating in the evening.

Oh b*** s***. No kid ever born wouldn't prefer to celebrate Halloween in school AND go trick or treating at night if they could. If you think they don't care then you don't know them very well (or any kid for that matter).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why Valentine's Day is allowed outside of the Family Life and Sexuality policy umbrella. Why are our kids being subjected to group displays of romance?

Don’t worry. Our Focus elementary school also banned Valentine’s Day celebrations at school.

Sounds like the wealthier schools do still celebrate Halloween and Valentine’s Day.

Yeah Valentine's Day went even before Halloween did. It's now "friendship day."

I'm not even sure why Valentine's Day was offensive? Why the need to eliminate the Valentine's Day celebration at our ES? We were never really given a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, I saw a woman in a moms facebook group say she was keeping her kid home from school to avoid any Halloween displays. She doesn't want her kid to be exposed to other kids celebrating so she's keeping them home.

Love that the fundos on both sides of this issue will be sitting it out.

My kids don't care about celebrating Halloween in school - they're just looking forward to trick or treating in the evening.

Oh b*** s***. No kid ever born wouldn't prefer to celebrate Halloween in school AND go trick or treating at night if they could. If you think they don't care then you don't know them very well (or any kid for that matter).

My kid really doesn't care about the part theme as long as she gets a cupcake. And she did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Halloween is in the evening.
Yes it’s cultural but has nothing to do with education.
Keep them separate.

That's not the tradition. In our culture we dress up for school, kids and teachers. We have parades and parties. That's American culture.

Weird. I went to school in New England and then Virginia in late 80's and '90s and we never celebrated Halloween during the day. It was just at night.

[Anonymous]

So my kids have attended at least there for community Halloween celebrations. Not having a Halloween celebration at school is NBD to them.

I would encourage anybody who feels super outraged to get off the keyboard warrior pose and try organizing a community event at school after hours. That way it's optional and people who desperately need to celebrate Halloween at school can feel satisfied. Chances are your pta Always can use another volunteer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we’re really arguing about here is immigration. Schools with a significant majority of immigrants from Central America and Africa are cancelling Halloween because their families think it’s Satanic. Which is ridiculous. I work at one of these schools and I spent a lot of time today mediating discussions between kids who seemed to think their classmates were literal devil worshipers. This is a lie and we teachers should teach them otherwise.

It is Santanic. You are wrong, you offer an alternative.

This is what we are up against. People who are ignorant yet somehow absolutely certain.

“Satanic” would mean an activity that involves worshiping the Judeo-Christian incarnation of evil.

Halloween doesn’t worship anything. It is an ancient pagan festival that was co-opted by the Christian church 1000 years ago.

Halloween is not a religious holiday at all anymore. It’s not Christian, it’s not anything. But you can’t call it Satanic unless you really believe that any holiday that’s not Christian — say, Rosh Hashanah or Diwali or Eid — is Satanic.

For some people, it is and you need to be respectful of their beliefs. Thats like saying Christmas isn't religious.

What? Tell me someone for whom Halloween is religious.

You’d know if you got out of your bubble.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I do find the aversion and censoring of Halloween in MCPS elementary schools to be very odd. Getting to dress up for the day and having Halloween classroom parties was a fantastic experience for me as a kid.

It’s extremely weird.

Halloween is a big part of American culture and it’s a fun part of childhood. It’s sad that MCPS is taking that away from kids.

MCPS is preventing kids from dressing up to go trick or treating? That's terrible!

Wait, what?

Stop being purposefully obtuse.

Class Halloween parties and parades are fun and are a big part of childhood for a lot of kids.

MCPS deciding to do away with that is unfortunate.

Do you also believe that MCPS is participating in the War On Christmas by no longer having in-school Christmas parties?

For as long as I have been on this forum on DCUM, which is way too long, there have been annual complaints about how MCPS is ruining childhood by not having Halloween parties, followed by annual complaints about children ruining other children's childhood by telling them Santa isn't real.

If you want your children to celebrate Halloween in the great American tradition, you should go out with them to tip over outhouses. That's your responsibility as a parent; it's not MCPS's.

I’m Jewish, and no — I don’t think there’s any war on Christmas. I do think having parties before winter break is fun and can be done in a secular way.

But it’s ridiculous for you to think it’s a huge deal for kids to have class Halloween parties.

It’s a little bit of fun. What’s the problem?

Is it a huge deal for kids to not have class Halloween parties?

For these people who act like MCPS can’t possibly handle it — yes, it apparently is. It’s just too much to ask that these kids get a little fun at school.

Re-read, please. Is it a huge deal for kids to not have class Halloween parties?

Given that it’s a harmless bit of fun — yeah I think it’s something I’d bring up with MCPS. Kids go through a lot; they deserve to have some fun at school.

You think it's a huge deal for kids to not have class Halloween parties? Wow.

Did I say that? No.

I just think it’s stupid to stop doing it. And I don’t get why you all act like it’s ridiculous to want it back.

What's ridiculous is to make a huge deal about it.

Who’s making a huge deal about it? We’re just saying the kids should be allowed to celebrate it at school, like kids have done for decades.

I know reading comprehension is a problem for you, but the PP literally just said they are allowed to celebrate at school by wearing costumes.

Are you suggesting that they be allowed to trick or treat at school or something? You do realize that the teachers have academic subjects to teach?

Ironic that you cite reading comprehension, when you seem to have missed the posts talking about schools that don’t allow Halloween celebrations at all.

Oh, I comprehended that perfectly well. It's just that nutcases like you claim that "ant-Halloween" is some widespread thing, but over the course of 8 pages, only one school was identified. So, in short, I don't believe you.

What? I haven't read the whole thread and I count 12 (my kid is at one of these schools and FTR it is NBD to us that they are doing a fall party instead of a halloween party)

Rock Creek forest
Rock view
Oakland terrace
highland
rosemary hills
woodlin
takoma
ESS
highland view
sligo creek
glen haven
farmland

Add Lucy V Barnsley ES to the list!

Not only do they ban Halloween in school, they also banned the PTA sponsored ‘Spooktacular’ that used to be held on the weekend. Used to be such a fun ‘community’ event for families.

Not sure how they could ban the PTA event as that is separate from MCPS.

LOL. Do you think the PTA can do whatever it wants because it is ‘separate from MCPS’? That is so far from the truth.

Our PTA wanted to provide extra funds to increase staffing but that was not allowed. The PTA leadership does not have free reign at any given ES.

Those two things are apples and oranges. There is specific state bylaws that prohibit PTA from funding positions because that creates a really bad situation when a person's job is at the mercy of the parents ability to fundraise. Plus It creates all kinds of inequalities when two schools that are getting similar funding from the state have completely different staffing because of the wealth of their parent groups.

That being said, if your PTA isn't interested in doing a Halloween celebration, you might want to also look into your community. Our community does a very well attended Halloween parade and house decorating contest and costume contest right around Halloween