Remember when suburban, white, Christian parents didn’t want their kids to participate in Halloween, because it encouraged “devil worship” and “interest in the occult?” Yep, I do too. Now it seems like those same parents are arguing for this cherished American holiday in schools, and anyone who doesn’t like it can shove it. Or stay home from school.
The school board in Milford, CT (a whopping metropolis of around 50, 000 people) announced that it would cancel the usual Halloween costume parade, and the town lost its sh!t.
Part of the school board’s reasoning, so it seems, is that the Halloween festivities were offending some students and families, and making them uncomfortable. This would not stand for Milford residents.
One prominent resident arranged a petition to reinstate the costume parade, and garnered around 2000 signatures. The petition stated:
“These are our American customs and traditions, and we should not have to give them up because others find them offensive!”
Unfortunately, a well-intentioned move by the school board brought out the xenophobic animus of some people.
One person wrote on the petition:
“This country is called America. If you don’t like it, get out!”
Yet another wrote:
“I’m sick of the ‘pc’ idiots running this country.”
The Milford school board buckled under public pressure and the Halloween costume parade is back on.
Strange as it sounds, I actually agree with the townsfolk on this one. The school board was overreaching, in my opinion. In trying to make a holiday “inclusive,” they wiped out the entire holiday for the school. Some schoolkids don’t have parents who can take them trick-or-treating, and for them, the school celebration is the only Halloween they get.
Halloween is awesome. It’s fun, people. It’s harmless. Let’s let kids be kids and dress up as superheroes or cartoon characters, then let’s let them show off their costumes to the other kids and teachers. So they lose an hour or two of instruction time. No problem. Kids are too distracted to learn on Halloween anyway.
And if the fact that some children dress up as the Yo Gabba Gabba monsters offends another child, I say tough patoots for that child. That is not a reasonable thing to take offense to, in my opinion. And the school board’s response is not a reasonable one. Halloween is a crazily pan-religious and pan-spiritual mish-mash holiday– let’s not pretend that it favors one religion over another. Let’s just let the kids dress up and beg for candy– because, after all, isn’t that the real meaning of Halloween?
