For many years, youngsters at Burlington’s Edmunds Elementary School paraded in costumes along Main Street or the field next to school to celebrate Halloween. Passing drivers often tooted their horns in appreciation and parents and pedestrians clapped.
The ritual won’t be happening this year.
Friday afternoon, principal Shelley Mathias let parents know in her weekly newsletter that the parade has been deep-sixed.
“We will no longer be having a Halloween Parade. I know that this will be disappointing to some of our students, but there are enough students who are marginalized for any number of reasons that it isn’t appropriate to continue a tradition that has an effect of dividing students,” Mathias wrote.
The official confirmation came after some parents, such as Jennifer Moore, heard earlier this week that the parade was off — and weren’t happy about it.
“My fourth-grader came home in tears [Wednesday] because her teacher said, ‘I have bad news for you. We are not going to be allowed to have a Halloween celebration,'” Moore told Seven Days on Thursday.
She fired off an email to the entire Burlington School Board and Superintendent of Schools Yaw Obeng asking why the spooky ritual had to die.
Thursday afternoon, Obeng replied with a lengthy email, shared with Seven Days, explaining why the district is cracking down on the holiday and its trappings of candy corn, pumpkins and witch capes.
The administration is strongly discouraging Halloween events during the school day in all schools, not just Edmunds.
Part of the rationale: Halloween has become a headache for schools. It’s difficult to balance parental concerns about inappropriate costumes and children who can’t afford any costume at all with appreciation for the holiday, Obeng wrote.
People have complained on various grounds, he informed parents.
“There are members of our community who celebrate Halloween as a religious holy day, members who feel the socioeconomic pressure of such a consumerized tradition, members who feel the food products marketed during [that] time go against their family’s dietary habits, ” Obeng wrote.
Others have had “first-hand traumatic experiences of violence that make talking about death, ghosts, etc. extremely alienating,” he added.
Obeng did not say there was an outright ban on Halloween in Burlington schools, but suggested that BSD leadership feels strongly that the district must adopt practices where “holiday parties and parades are not happening” during the school day.
District communication specialist Russell Elek said Friday that the policy still gives individual schools room to make their own decisions about Halloween. Some schools have already phased out Halloween. Others still have events and will likely be having conversations about them, he added.
Moore disagrees with the policy. After Obeng responded to her first email, Moore wrote back.
“The decision to prohibit Halloween celebrations at school is not inclusive, it is exclusive,” Moore wrote. “It excludes the large majority of children who do celebrate this secular holiday from celebrating with their friends, sharing their creativity and just having some fun during the school day. “
She’s happy with her child’s education in Burlington but believes kids need time for what she sees as harmless fun, Moore said in an interview.
Even for very young children, the curriculum now focuses on academics and testing, she said. Last year’s parade, which was moved from Main Street to the school’s athletic field, was a great break, she added.
“I left work and went to see them do it. It’s so fun to see,” she said, adding that “the homemade costumes are always the best costumes” and that she would be happy to donate to a communal costume box to ensure that every child who wishes could participate.
Further, she sees scant connection between Halloween and any religious beliefs and views the holiday as a cultural tradition for the vast majority of participants.
But around the nation, other schools have also canceled Halloween observances. Obeng’s email said some Vermont schools have moved away from the holiday. He specifically cited “Essex and MMU.” But on Friday, Elek followed up to say the administration had made a mistake, and those systems don’t have a district wide policy against Halloween celebrations — but consider events school-by-school.
Mathias, the principal of Edmunds Elementary, did not return a call for comment Friday.
Here’s Obeng’s full email:
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“inappropriate costumes and children who can’t afford any costume ” Give me a break !. I didn’t buy costumes for my kids.. We made them and the kids were excited to wear something they made.
Could it be that Obeng doesn’t like Halloween, that his culture thinks it’s evil??
Some schools have already taken Christmas out of school, they don’t say the pledge allegiance, the lord’s prayer. I even heard that recess may be taken away..
WOW, our school will surely be under socialists rules
.
Yet students can up and walk out of classes and go walk in the streets to protest and not go back to school and Obeng is all for that..!!
Yes, school is for learning, but holiday parties and recess give kids a break during school. heck the teachers take their breaks.!!
How about letting kids be kids while they can, Stop making schools a dictatorship school..
“Socioeconomic pressure of such a consumerized tradition”? You must mean Christmas.
Getting rid of Columbus Day is not a bad idea, either. How about renaming it from the Native American point of view? Maybe “There Goes the Neighborhood Day”, or “It’s All Downhill From Here Day”?
I’m surprised schools don’t have the day off, after all it’s a city and state holiday! To me it’s just another excuse for people to have a day off!
Soon they will eliminate Columbus Day.
hear the train a comin’
It’s rollin’ ’round the bend …..
next stop Thanksgiving and Christmas.
One more step towards joyless schools. Kids need fun non-educational activities sometimes just to blow off steam and let them be kids. If some kids don’t have costumes, how about finding a way to get them one as part of the fun? Let interested older kids and parent volunteers participate, set aside a room and some donated supplies, let it become about helping others and part of the festivity! Schools need not become devoid of joy; education isn’t only book learning.
Can’t celebrate but are marched by the school in protests, were was the push for learning when the kids are used to push a political agenda.
Too bad parents are more worried about Halloween than they are their children’s illiteracy.
The majority of kids in Vermont’s largest city can’t spell Halloween or count the number of candy bars in their bag.
(The schools superintendent seems about as concerned for that as the parents, judging from the amount of time he spent on the Halloween memo.)
The schools boss pulled out all stops in the infamous Halloween memo.
Including this gem:
“There are members of our community who celebrate Halloween as a religious holy day.”
And?
Oh well, no more Halloween in Vermont’s largest city.
Boo hoo.
God forbid the illiterate kids at Edmunds are forced to do some reading, writing and arithmetic instead of parading around in costumes.
If parents were as concerned about the illiteracy rate among their children as they are about Halloween, then, folks, we might be getting somewhere.
As for Supt. Obeng’s infamous Halloween memo, he, too, ought to be as concerned about his city’s illiteracy rate as he is about Halloween.
Sadly, he isn’t, else he wouldn’t have spent so much time preaching about Halloween. (He apparently has a lot of extra time on his hands that he should be using to focus on illiteracy.)
The big question is whether South Burlington Public Schools have also followed suit?
Because BSD Superintendent Yaw Obeng does not even send his own children to Burlington public schools. As every single property taxpayer in Burlington; and every single parent of a public school student in Burlington knows and remembers, Yaw Obeng lied during the interview process, publicly stating he would live in Burlington, in compliance with the-then active law. The law required this of all department heads, including the schools, because the idea is each decision-maker should have a personal stake in the decisions being made. Voters repeatedly rejected all efforts to end the law.
And, after receiving and accepting his offer, Obeng suddenly changed his mind, violating his promise & the law, and moved to South Burlington. Claiming his comfortable six-figure salary as superintendent of Vermont’s largest school district was not enough to pay for housing in Burlington.
Hope Obeng is personally out in front of South Burlington schools, where he sends his own children, marching and protesting their celebration of, to paraphrase him, “unequal,” “unsafe,” “demeaning,” “alienating” and “not inclusive” Halloween. Does he have the courage of his convictions (or will he finally move his family to Burlington, like he promised to get the job)?
Unable to overturn the law (since it required voter approval), Burlington City Council then later shamefully diluted it to magically make live in Burlington = live anywhere in Chittenden County.