One elementary school in Evanston, Illinois has canceled their Halloween celebration, meaning no candy or costumes. The celebration takes place during the school day where students would normally have dressed up to celebrate the occasion. The school has a reason for this, saying it wants to be inclusive of all its students and are being mindful of other students who don’t celebrate for religious reasons.
As a result, they’re aiming to avoid celebrating a “cultural” holiday such as Halloween. The school has released a statement on the situation.
School cancels Halloween celebration to promote inclusivity
Michelle Cooney, Lincoln Elementary school principal, releases the statement.
“While we recognize that Halloween is a fun tradition for many families, it is not a holiday that is celebrated by all members of our school community and for various reasons. There are also inequities in how we have traditionally observed the holiday as part of our school day. Our goal at Lincoln is to provide space and opportunities for all students to be part of the community — not to create an environment that may feel exclusive or unwelcoming to any child.”
The parents aren’t agreeing with it
However, parents of the children at the elementary school are feeling frustrated about the decision. The reasons being they feel left out in this decision-making process. They also feel there is a lack of carity in why it happens this way and want to know how the school plans to move forward with it.
“To take away (Halloween) in the name of a few people who don’t celebrate, this is completely wrong,” one parent says.
This isn’t the first time this has happened
Instead of having a Halloween party like the school originally plans to, they will be having a “fall celebration” type of party instead. It will commence on Friday, November 1st.
This has actually been occurring in schools all across the nation for quite some time now. Check out this news coverage from 2017! Schools were “canceling Halloween” in school for the same reason of inclusivity.
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