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 Most schools
allow students to wear Halloween costumes on October 31st.,
or at least put them on during last class, although most don't want a mask to be worn during classes
for safety reasons. They also hold Halloween parties,
costume parades, haunted houses and other fun filled
activities.
But over the
last decade or so, some public schools have begun canceling or greatly
curtailing Halloween celebrations for a variety of reasons,
some of which are nothing more than ridiculous, but many
have a much darker reason, a social and political agenda to
eliminate Halloween altogether.
Right now
these types of incidents seem to be isolated, but
they do seem to be growing in number each year.
Needless to
say, most parents are angered by what they say is political
correctness taken to the absurd and believe the idea of
banning Halloween activities at school is nothing short of outrageous.
I think most parents remember what a wonderful time they had
on this magical day/night and don't want their children to
be deprived of the same experiences and memories. Children
simply don't understand why anyone would do such a horrible
thing to them and are often devastated.
We believe
that there is a big difference between political correctness
and political stupidity, and it sickens us when we see
headlines like these:
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Traditionally, a Halloween party and parade
where the costumed kids would walk through the
classrooms during the last half-hour of class
was highly anticipated at schools in the
Puyallup School District of Washington state,
but not any more, thanks to superintendent Tony
Apostle, who has banned all Halloween related
activities in the entire school district!
His big concern seems to be that Halloween
celebrations and children dressed in Halloween
costumes might be offensive to real witches.
Witchcraft and Wicca, as well as other nature
based religions are real and legitimate, but I'm not offended by these festivities
and I have been a traditionally initiated Witch
since 1975. What I am offended by is extremist
administrators and educators arbitrarily and without
consultation, abolishing a time honored
tradition in school. |
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In 2011, Principal
Brian Anderson unilaterally banned Halloween costumes
at the Buckman Elementary School in Portland,
Oregon, wanting to deemphasize the celebration
of Halloween at school, and stating that "we"
are pushing our traditions on an ever-changing
population, meaning new immigrants.
This radical policy has angered parents and
devastated students. |
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Principal Diana
Davidson of the Riviera Elementary School in
Clear Lake Riviera, California also banned
Halloween costumes, until so many parents
complained that she reversed the ban, saying
that it had become a “more emotional issue”
than she had anticipated. What this means is
that she was taking more heat than she could
handle and backed down. |
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Other elementary
schools, such as the Holton and Edgewood
Elementary schools in Michigan, have cancelled all
Halloween related activities and replace them with what
they call a Fall Festival, designed around their
own social scheme. Principal Amy Upham, in
Fruitport, won't allow Halloween parties and
costumes parades at her school, but will replace
them with fall-centered fun and educational
activities. That's right, lets take everything
we can from kids. It's hard enough today for a
child to grow up happy, of course they shouldn't
have any fun what so ever. |
Some might say that
because Halloween does have religious roots, it would be
unconstitutional for it to be promoted in schools, because
of the separation of church and state. The problem
is that Halloween is both a religious and non-religious holiday.
Samhain (sow-wan) is a holy day celebrated by Witches and
other pagan based religions on October 31st/November 1st.
But for the vast majority of people it is a non-religious
holiday of celebration and festivities.
In school, it
has been traditionally celebrated by allowing kids dress up
in Halloween costumes, hold in-class Halloween parties,
exchange tasty treats and
par take in a variety of other Halloween activities, none of
which could be construed as promoting a "religious" holiday,
only as a secular celebration. As for the children
themselves, I don't ever remember a kid who didn't love
Halloween. If some of the "loonies" in our society happen to
think that Halloween is such a controversial holiday, they can always choose to abstain
instead of forcing their twisted ideology on people who
don't want it.
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