Does your MCPS elementary school still do Halloween?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this. Would love to hear what MoCo school have planned for Halloween 2021!

Ours is still TBD but sounds unlikely. Principal is considering a weekend Halloween Zoom option if the in person festivities are cancelled.

Why would the in person festivities be canceled? By mcps because of covid? Because of rain?

Nobody wants to zoom over the weekend. Kids want to do something fun and festive at school instead of actual school work. It’s a big deal for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this. Would love to hear what MoCo school have planned for Halloween 2021!

Ours is still TBD but sounds unlikely. Principal is considering a weekend Halloween Zoom option if the in person festivities are cancelled.

Why would the in person festivities be canceled? By mcps because of covid? Because of rain?

Nobody wants to zoom over the weekend. Kids want to do something fun and festive at school instead of actual school work. It’s a big deal for kids.

PP here and yes, that was my understanding. Hadn't officially been told "no" by MCPS yet but school is trying to minimize expectations. We would absolutely skip any Zoom Halloween parade, just a joke.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t Halloween parades typically outside?

Couldn’t they dress up, head outside to parade around, and then play outside?

[Anonymous]

Won’t an after-hours trunk or treat on school property create more risk than a heavily orchestrated school event?

[Anonymous]

Our ES is doing a parade outside around the whole school and then classroom parties.

[Anonymous]

Kids partying with the usual half dozen to dozen parents all packed into a room is more than some principals want to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No Halloween this year at my kids school in SS. Fall festival celebrations with no costumes, no parade, no mention of Halloween. Teachers don’t want it.

Are you sure it’s the teachers?

At our school, the teachers were fine with it. But the principal got rid of Halloween before Covid. Teachers aren’t even allowed to read books that mention Halloween.

[Anonymous]

no halloween party for our school, to be more inclusive.. I feel bad for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids partying with the usual half dozen to dozen parents all packed into a room is more than some principals want to deal with.

No one wants extra parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no halloween party for our school, to be more inclusive.. I feel bad for the kids.

Ours just canceled too, for equity reasons. I guess no one can be a ghost by wearing a bedsheet, or a cowboy (is that cultural appropriation?) by wearing jeans and a hat, or a scarecrow by wearing jeans and a flannel, or a 70s person by wearing long ponytails and makeup… We made many homemade costumes growing up. There’s a school fun day in mid October where there will be forced fun outside in one hour blocks, where games are to have absolutely no Halloween theme at all. I’m not making this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no halloween party for our school, to be more inclusive.. I feel bad for the kids.

Ours just canceled too, for equity reasons. I guess no one can be a ghost by wearing a bedsheet, or a cowboy (is that cultural appropriation?) by wearing jeans and a hat, or a scarecrow by wearing jeans and a flannel, or a 70s person by wearing long ponytails and makeup… We made many homemade costumes growing up. There’s a school fun day in mid October where there will be forced fun outside in one hour blocks, where games are to have absolutely no Halloween theme at all. I’m not making this up.

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.

[jsteele]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1006918.page