Anti-Halloween Forces In MoCo Schools

See what you think about this one, from The Gazette:

A Silver Spring elementary school has been caught in the middle of how to appease a diverse student body as officials and parents spar over the best way to celebrate Halloween.

Cannon Road Elementary School, 901 Cannon Road in Silver Spring, has just changed its annual Halloween party to a fall festival. According to a flier, costumes are welcome but the festivities will center on fall themes and avoid any mention of the spooky holiday.

The change has upset some parents, who say it's unfair to erase the holiday all together.

"It's just one more erosion of an American tradition that's been tossed out the door because somebody didn't like it," said Buffy Stutz, a parent at Cannon Road.

Opponents of the switch said the school was better off last year when there were two parties on Oct. 31—one for children celebrating Halloween and a harvest party for children who don't celebrate the holiday.

Sue Badrian was in charge of putting on the harvest party last year. Answering criticism that the harvest party isn't as fun as the Halloween party, she said the children played games, listened to music, ate food—did everything but don costumes.

"Are you kidding me? It was so fun," she said.

Parents like Badrian and Stutz said they haven't heard an explanation of why there was a switch. Despite repeated phone calls, Cannon Road's principal, Judith Theiss, could not be reached for comment. However, a staff member answering the phone said the change to a fall festival is in name only. Halloween parties or fall festival celebrations?

I always loved that scene in E.T. where the kids were trick-or-treating, and ET blended right in, remember that?

I'll say what everybody my age says: when I was a kid, the streets were full of costumed children, some of the little ones with parents waiting at the curb but most of them out being rowdy and having fun getting tons of candy from their neighbors. Then, it seemed, you had fewer kids and more parents, as people worried about child molesters and murderers and things like razor blades in the candy. And now, hardly anybody comes to the door.

I guess it's against somebody's religion to celebrate Halloween, okay, whatever, don't celebrate it. But two parties? You're going to have the real Halloween party and then a "harvest" party? Like these Silver Spring kids live on farms. Hardly anybody today understands the hard work of harvesting and the tilling, planting, cultivation necessary to get the crops to that point, hardly anybody "goes to town" to sell their produce, hardly anybody appreciates the turning of the mythical wheel of the seasons as the sun grows weak, to be reborn at the new year. But everybody understands dressing up in scary costumes and going door to door, pretending to threaten to trick people if they don't give you a treat. Everybody understands the fun for the children and the fun for the adults who comment on the costumes and "try to guess" who different crazy monsters really are.

The protocol for celebrating Halloween in area schools varies. Carmen Van Zutphen, the principal of Bel Pre Elementary in Silver Spring, said she takes her lead from the parents. In recent years, that has meant having a "friendly Halloween" celebration in which children dress up as storybook characters or in other costumes not intended to scare. Children who don't celebrate Halloween are given an alternate activity.

Glen Haven Elementary's principal, Joanne Smith, acknowledges it's difficult to accommodate a multitude of beliefs. The Wheaton school has a similar policy in which the majority of students, parents and staff participate in a Halloween parade. Those who don't participate in the parade have a Halloween-free activity.

Smith said she wouldn't consider cutting the festivities because Halloween has become a community event entrenched in American culture.

"I would get strung up if I tried to stop it," said Smith.

Parents and students at Cannon Road Elementary say they're still looking for an answer as to why the school can't have two parties.

After the notice came out a few weeks ago, fifth-graders Bruce Pattishall and Matthew Guerrera decided to look for answers. They polled randomly selected students in grades 1 through 5 about whether they would like a fall festival or a Halloween party. The boys said the majority of kids preferred to celebrate Halloween.

"If this is how the kids see it, then why can't we have it this way?" Guerrera said. The boys agreed with their parents that eliminating Halloween was unfair to both sides.

Stutz said it would be better to have two parties.

"That celebrates everything and includes everybody," she said.

The strange thing in this story is that they never say who is opposed to Halloween, The Gazette totally conceals their identities. No one opposed to Halloween is quoted or named, no motive is given, nothing. Why are they doing that?

This is another example of a small handful of people making a mess for everybody else. There doesn't have to be any controversy about Halloween, for cryin' out loud. This article is very careful not to mention religion, for reasons I don't understand. Is there some other reason anyone would oppose something as fun and benign as Halloween? Pretending it's a harvest festival doesn't seem to add anything, it just takes the tradition out of it.