Oct 22, 2007 10:58 am US/Central
Some Schools Take 'Boo!' Out Of Halloween
(Aurora Beacon News)
Students are transforming into supermen and princesses. Parent-teacher organizations are planning parades and parties. And Fox Valley administrators are welcoming all manner of Halloween traditions.
Except, that is, the scary ones.
"If you (dress up as) a zombie, you just don't have all the blood," Geneva School Superintendent Kent Mutchler says. Mutchler allows elementary school students to wear costumes as long as they include no "violence or gory things."
At least one zombie is planning to attend Freeman Elementary School in the West Aurora School District, where principals are allowed to lay down their own ground rules on costumes. His first-grade classmates include several vampires, Dracula and "a dead bride."
But costumes are off-limits altogether at Yorkville Middle School where kids save them for a Friday night PTO party.
In Geneva, Mutchler asks parents to use their discretion rather than laying down specific do's and don'ts. He says the restrictions keep kids from bringing in look-alike weapons or wearing costumes that hint at gang affiliation.
Other administrators are simply worried about the way school parties tend to focus more on parties than on school.
Yorkville Intermediate School teacher Shawn Collins, however, has managed to merge education with celebration. The fourth-grade teacher found his way around a schoolwide costume ban by making plans for a theater-themed day. Students will get scripts and costume-making materials and act out scenes in front of their peers.
"It's mostly a reading exercise," Collins insists.
And partly a chance to dress up.
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