Today's Poll: Should schools ban Halloween costumes?

re: Time Magazine article.

Where are the parents who should be standing up to challenge such moronic decisions?

Oh silly me, never-mind.

They're too busy doing important nonsense like watching american idolt, dancing with the stards, and eagerly waiting for whatever Miley is going to expose next.

:rolleyes:

Why can't just let Kids be Kids anymore?

Are you saying kids being allowed to be kids is more important than so called educators being allowed to operate their taxpayer funded fiefdoms as they wish?

How dare you!

Halloween is NOT a religious holiday. The name is a contraction of All Hallow's Eve, and it means the evening BEFORE All Saints Day which is a Catholic day of observance. Although the R. C. holiday supplanted an earlier Celtic/Gaelic festival, Samhain, the two have nothing to do with one another- other than the politics of co-opting. Ignoring the 50,000 acknowledged Wiccans living in the United States, Halloween is a commercialized harvest festival, wholly American, devoted to kids dressing up in costume, going house-to-house seeking candy. ...Getting back to the Wiccans: they do not call their Sabbat (solar holiday) "Halloween." They use the Celtic name, Samhain, because they recognize the difference. Suspending Halloween in the schoolhouse only disappoints kids; it satisfies no encroachment on church/state separation. Going a step farther (in light of the pervasiveness of mainstream religious presence in public schools) it's pretty hypocritical and detours a significant teachable moment.

Ultimately school actions like banning Halloween are individuated by school boards and school officials who interpret/misinterpret pertinent regulations or school boards reacting to public opinion.

On the one hand, certain groups exploit the (alleged) banning of religion by public schools. Most of what they complain about is hogwash; the only religious prohibitions relate to school-led prayer or proselytizing. Out of the other side of the mouth comes this concocted conspiracy to promote paganism. If so many weren't taking this seriously, it would be comedy.

This is dumb.

Leave the kids alone.

C. M.,

I have always found it humorous that leftists (who make Chicken Little look like a reflective, unexcitable and thoughtful creature when they go into full "Save the World!", "There Aughta Be A LAW!", "We're OFFENDED!" mode) attempt to convincingly counsel calm and measured debate in response to their agenda items.

Your failure to recognize that it is going on means you need to step back and go at it again. You have done research to bolster your argument, now do the research to explain your opponents argument. If the answer you get is based upon a derisive, dismissive, view of those who dare disagree with you, you are not bettering yourself. Nor are you progressing.

I agree with Phil.

Leave the kids alone.

Phil said it all.

As far as the Halloween candy poisoning myth, there is this...

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp

As for the rest of the excuses I agree with what most are commenting on here. Its a kids holiday, let them enjoy it, if I had a child in school I'd consider a very public lawsuit on Schools abridging my child's freedom of expression. If Halloween is going to be curtailed then I think the same treatment of thanksgiving should also be done. No dressing up as pilgrims or indians, no representation of turkey dinners as they would have to include references to hunting which would mean firearms, and so on.

But then again no one bitc....I mean complains about THAT harvest festival.

I would send my kids in to school in costume, regardless of their policy and force them to transport my kid home if they were gonna kick them out for it. Make them go the extra mile to excercise their little power trips and make sure the press has the full story so they look bad in the public eye.

It can be done, I (and some of my friends) did it in High School @ Brockport with the infamous kissing ban, we protested and walked out of school over it and got the "public display of affection" rule struck down that the school tried to summarily impose on the student body.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1985/Students-Cut-Class-To-Protest-Ban-On-…

Ban Halloween costumes? I was just wondering how the 'authorities' are even going to distinguish between who's wearing a 'costume' and who's dressed up as they do every day.

"Hey, Bill, is that one over there wearing a costume to look like a Las Vegas streetwalker?"
"Uh, no Jim. That's Toshibah. She dresses that slutty every day."

"Well, how about that kid by the flagpole? That definitely must be a costume!"
"Sorry, Jim, but that's Billy Hoofinger. Again, that's not a 'costume'. He looks like a human pin cushion every day. Hell, he's had 8 pounds of metal skewered through his face since he was in 2nd grade. Where have you been, anyways?"

"Whew, Bill, this is harder that I thought. How are we even supposed to find someone 'dressed-up' for Halloween?"

"Well, Jim, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, but if ... HEY, grab that kid over there. Yeah, the one with the white shirt & blazer on. If that isn't a costume, I don't know what is!"

Later - "I'm sorry, Coach. I just saw the clothing, and didn't realize it was one of us."

Howard, I never would've put flowers on that vest. It was tartan!

That's funny Howard, lol.

Once again, it comes down to some up tight arseholes trying to ruin everyone elses fun because, they weren't invited to the party, picked on for a bad costume, or they are just purely, anal retentive. What is next the Renaissance Festival? It is pathetic that, we even have issues like this but, the minority of our society whine louder and longer than the majority of society. Once again we have those who try to violate our Constitutional Rights because, it displeases them. Whether you view Halloween as a holiday or festival it is a good time for the children and adults. Who has not gone to a Halloween Party in their life time? Those who were born without a sense of fun or humor, aka Anal Retentive! I will always be amazed by the way courts can violate your Constitutional Rights and defend them at the same time.

NO! I don't believe we should ban Halloween, but, we might as well, seeing we've effectively eliminated Christmas, oops, I mean the winter festival season, and the pledge of allegiance, and prayer, and . . . . . . . from our schools. I'm so tired of our being so worried about offending a few, when so many (look at the poll) of us are being offended by these attempted bans. Halloween now being the fall festival. (preferably with no costumes) and Christmas now being changed to the winter festival, with no trees, manger scenes, exchanging gifts, Christmas carols, etc. Does it ever end? I have good friends of other persuasions, be it religion, politics, cultures, beliefs, etc, and yet amazingly there has never seemed to be a problem between us. Maybe some interesting conversations, but never problems. Over the years most of us have respected these differences, and the majority of us (I believe) don't try to push our views and beliefs on them, or they (for the most part) on us. Yet, a few seem to be having problems with what we used to take for granted. How sad

Someone needs to explain to the US Govt that the Constitution guarantees us freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion. For some reason the idiots of both political parties seem to think they can interpret the Constitution the way they want, leading other forms of authority to do the same, like police, city and town Govts and BOE's amd such. Time for the PUBLIC to make its offended status known to these morons. It's getting closer and closer to doing so, I just wonder what action is gonna be the straw that breaks the camels back so to speak.

When are adults going to allow children to live and experience?

When I was a kid, dirt trucks were made of sheet metal. If we got a scratch, our mothers didn't pick up the phone book looking for a lawyer to sue the toy company, they reached for the Bactine and Band Aides.

We rode bikes withOUT helmets, knee and elbow pads.

Skate boarded with no protective equipment of any kind.

Video games, huh? There were no such thing back in the day.

We went to the local park, played on the swings and slides, went fishing by ourselves, to bike hikes, hiked in the woods, and camped out with our friends.

We soaped windows, sprayed shaving cream, and TPed the principles house every Halloween. The next day, we went around and cleaned up the messes we made.

We were kids after all!

AMEN, Ray!