For schools that have banned Halloween

[Anonymous]

What Halloween alternative activities does your school have? My child’s school has a Fall Festival. I volunteered to help and all they did was eat fruit snacks and watch a video about pumpkins. I’m curious as to what other schools are doing.

[Anonymous]

When my kids were in ES, they did nothing. Nada. Having grown up with a costume parade around the black top, our parents invited to watch, little classroom party after, I was pretty disappointed my kids didn't get to enjoy that.

Although now in MS (public) and HS (private), they can wear costumes on Halloween, although certain things not allowed and the theme for the MS is dictated (e.g., "favorite book or movie character").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were in ES, they did nothing. Nada. Having grown up with a costume parade around the black top, our parents invited to watch, little classroom party after, I was pretty disappointed my kids didn't get to enjoy that.

Although now in MS (public) and HS (private), they can wear costumes on Halloween, although certain things not allowed and the theme for the MS is dictated (e.g., "favorite book or movie character").

That’s how I feel. My oldest got to experience it in kindergarten before it was banned. My youngest will never experience it.

[Anonymous]

My beautiful teacher daughter is all dressed up as Ms Frizzle today! They call it “character day”. But it’s just Halloween with a less spooky name. I’m so glad she teaches in a school that values fun and festivity!

[Anonymous]

I taught back in the day. I loved Halloween. With Christmas, you had the "gift" problem. With Valentine's Day, the packages never had enough Valentines and so someone always got left out. But, with Halloween, it was just fun. And, if a kid didn't have a costume, I always had a dress up box at the ready--complete with a mask or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were in ES, they did nothing. Nada. Having grown up with a costume parade around the black top, our parents invited to watch, little classroom party after, I was pretty disappointed my kids didn't get to enjoy that.

Although now in MS (public) and HS (private), they can wear costumes on Halloween, although certain things not allowed and the theme for the MS is dictated (e.g., "favorite book or movie character").

That’s how I feel. My oldest got to experience it in kindergarten before it was banned. My youngest will never experience it.

Same. I agree. It was really disappointing as those were some of my fondest memories of my ES years.

[Anonymous]

Crazy hair day.

[Anonymous]

why are schools banning it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What Halloween alternative activities does your school have? My child’s school has a Fall Festival. I volunteered to help and all they did was eat fruit snacks and watch a video about pumpkins. I’m curious as to what other schools are doing.

This is trouble with school parties, generally. Ideally, there would be games, maybe a craft activity for little ones. But it takes a lot of planning as well as the time and free space to set things up. You also have to have materials available or the budget to buy supplies.

[Anonymous]

We are at a moco es. We have trunk or treat the night before halloween anf its after school hours.

[Anonymous]

My kid's public school doesn't do anything. There are a significant number of kids who don't celebrate because of their religious beliefs. The school doesn't celebrate any holidays but they have an international day (dress in traditional clothes from your country of origin and bring a food to share) two field days, a couple of family picnics. It's different than what I'm used to but my kid doesn't feel like she is missing out.

[Anonymous]

Our school doesn't do anything, but we go treat-or-treating at night and give out candy on our porch, and that's more than enough.

[Anonymous]

This isn’t really anything new. I have taught for FCPS since the early 1990s and we have never done anything special for Halloween. During this week’s spirit week students can dress up as a book character, so that’s the Halloween dress up day under the guise of another title. That’s a recent development though.

I suppose we shouldn’t party too much. Think about all the threads people post about lost instructional time as it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My beautiful teacher daughter is all dressed up as Ms Frizzle today! They call it “character day”. But it’s just Halloween with a less spooky name. I’m so glad she teaches in a school that values fun and festivity!

She needs a calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why are schools banning it?

At my child’s school it was due to parents complaining about their kids feeling left out because they don’t celebrate Halloween and other parents wouldn’t send their kids to school on Halloween.