Elementary school in Indio cancels Halloween, says disruptive in classroom
Many may agree part of the Halloween fun is kids getting to wear a costume to school and showing it off to their fellow classmates, But students at one local school won’t get to. Carrillo Ranch Elementary in Indio cancelled Halloween, so that means no little superheros, pirates, or princesses running around on Friday.
The school says it believes dressing up for Halloween is disruptive in the classroom, while parents say the school is stripping away the day’s fun.
“They get to pick who they want to be, their favorite superhero, their favorite knight of the roundtable, whatever.. they get to play that fantasy,” said parent Christy Weigel.
“My daughter she was like… she didn’t like that option. She was so excited because she was going to be Maleficent,” said parent Yesenia Vialba.
The school, despite celebrating and allowing their students to dress up at school for years, this year they’re saying no.
“I just felt since it was on a Friday, the kids could do without bringing their costumes so we could focus on instruction,” said Principal John Waybrant at Carrillo Ranch Elementary.
He says he and other school administrators believe the costumes interfere with the student’s school work.
“They come in inappropriate costumes, you know, you always have that with the blood and the masks and they can’t keep the masks off, so there’s always kind of a safety issue there. You deal with total lack of focus on instructional day because they’re so excited because Halloween is such a big deal,” he said.
Parents find the decision somewhat extreme.
“I don’t know why they take it off. It was supposed to be a simple parade and that was it. Everyone has to change again to the uniform and I don’t know, it was like an hour or less,” said Vialba.
“Maybe a little bit disruptive, but when we’re talking about elementary school, one day doesn’t make much of a difference,” said Weigel.
So, is the school willing to reconsider?
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I want to see what the difference is and if we can get another instructional day in. Again, not anti-Halloween by any means, I want the kids to have a great time. You know we talk to them about Halloween safety and those things, but we just wanted to focus on instruction, we’re off to a really good start this year and we want to keep the focus on the classroom,” Waybrant said.
He says the school notified parents about the decision at the start of the school year. The Desert Sands School District say it will leave it up to the school’s discretion whether or not to allow students to dress up.
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