The War on Halloween

[133724]

A Washington state school district is canceling its annual Halloween celebration, and the explanation has some parents baffled.

"Let them have their 30 minutes of dressing goofy and having candy," Silas Macon, a father of two school-age girls, said Wednesday outside Maplewood Elementary School after learning that the grade-school tradition of a party and parade in costume during the last half-hour of class before Halloween night won't happen this year in the district.

A letter sent home to parents Wednesday said there will be no observance of Halloween in any of the district's schools.

"We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said.

The superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons, Hansen said. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. Second, some families can't afford costumes and the celebrations thus can create embarrassment for children.
...

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," Hansen said.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=184701&page=1

Police: Highland man attacked neighbor's Halloween decoration, home

HIGHLAND — A Highland man was arrested Thursday night on charges he attacked a neighbor's inflatable Halloween decoration and then tried to break into the home, police said Friday.

The residents of 72 Kisor Road watched 43-year-old John Odee fight their giant inflated pumpkin and ghost Halloween decoration before he used his head to break a window to enter the residence, according to state police.

Dawn Garcia was at home with her children when she heard someone making a commotion outside around 8 p.m.

“I thought maybe there was a fight on the front yard,” Garcia said.

When she looked out the window, she could see someone struggling with the pumpkin

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/NEWS01/71012025

Halloween Display Causes Controversy

A Halloween display in LaGrange is causing quite a bit of controversy. The people who put it up say its part of a Halloween theme. But others say it’s a symbol of racism.

The controversial display sits in the front yard of a home at 1401 Hogansville Road. A Halloween display of goblins and jack-o-lanterns takes up most of the front yard. But what is causing the controversy is a gallows, with three figures hanging from nooses. The figures heads are Halloween masks.

[BuyingThyme]

1. No matter what people try to do to Halloween,

it just gets more fun. Kinda like Ozzy.

[BridgeTheGap]

2. Trick or treat?

It used to be such a fun time.

[Mike Daniels]

13. No parties and people objecting to a decoration that's common in haunted houses

Jeez, everyone is so eager to be offended or is so afraid of offending people that they drain the fun out of every little thing nowadays.

And just because a gallows scene could be designed to be racist doesn't mean that all gallow scenes are racist. Looking at the picture in the OP I'd have to say one would have to be hard pressed to see any racist intent in that particular display.

[azurnoir]

15. When I was in 1rst grade

back in the stone age our teacher told us the great pumpkin swept up children who were being bad and pulling pranks while trick or treating. can you imagine what would happen if a teacher said something like that today?

[Warren DeMontague]

3. "she could see someone struggling with the pumpkin"

:rofl:

[Sequoia]

9. No wonder the Great Pumpkin never showed up.

Some fool fought the poor vegetable.

[Enrique]

11. me too

:rofl:

[Der Blaue Engel]

17. Wasn't that great?

I will cherish that image for a long time. :rofl:

[Warren DeMontague]

20. I know. Who needs drugs, anymore?

Reality's gotten plenty weird on its own.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. "waste valuable classroom time"

Funny, I don't remember that any of the time I spent in the classroom in grade 1-6 was all that valuable. However, I do remember things like parades & dances.

[BuyingThyme]

6. I spent those years wondering why we couldn't just skip lunch and recess

so we could go home a couple hours early.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. I figured I was trapped, so the only thing I looked forward to

was recess & lunch.

[BuyingThyme]

10. You must be one of those "half-glass full" people

that the President is always talking about.

[Mike Daniels]

5. Guess they'll be asking TV stations to ban "The Wizard of Oz"

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," Hansen said."

As far as productive time goes, I really don't think many kids are focused on classwork 30 minutes before the bell rings. I sure as hell wasn't regardless of whether it was elementary, high school, undergrad or grad school.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. Yeah, some people tried that round about 1999.

I'm serious.

[monktonman]

7. Wow, your cat is an angel!!! Cool! n/t

[mainegreen]

12. Pointy noses??

:rofl:
Your pointy nose offends me!!

[azurnoir]

14. it has gotten kind of ridiculous

in my sons school it is not called Halloween, its Pumpkin Day
this year they sent home the usual no scary costumes but with a specific ban on any type of witch costumes (Harry Potter) and this is a pretty liberal school they've held peace rallies and at the end of last year the kids grades 4-6 saw "An Inconvenient Truth"

[MADem]

19. Everyone likes to just blame the Wiccans....

But I gotta tell ya, I had a helluva time convincing some friends of mine who were Turkish muslims to let their kids go trick or treating and wear costumes (this was years ago when it was safe). The father, really, was the sticking point, because he was a fucking twitch who thought the holiday signified the worship of Shatan, and that was the actual GOAL of the holiday.

It took forever to convince him that it's just a dress-up occasion, with SCARY overtones, and an opportunity for little children to cadge candy from the neighbors. What finally sold him, reluctantly, was the assertion that his kids, who were in grade school, would be unreasonably singled out if they didn't participate in the school parade, the party and the evening trick-or-treating.

We ended up dressing up their kids (he had no clue, so we just took over) in great costumes (one of them won the class prize), they got a shitload of candy, and...oh, the irony... Fat Daddy ate half of it...!!!!

The kids were grateful for our intervention. They wanted to enjoy the "full experience" of the culture along with their classmates, and they had a fun time. I still hear from them, they're adults now, and they remember that Halloween, and Christmas (Santa Christmas, not Jesus Christmas, mind you--that was another 'culture war') with great fondness.

[Vilis Veritas]

16. A picture of the Pumpkin Bandit...

Just kidding...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. Do Holiday parties (ex Christmas parties) waste valuable classroom time?

there is a war on halloween

one of these days we will be having Equinox parties