"'Halloween is not a holiday celebrated by everyone, and has a "range of inequities that are embedded' in the festivities," the Principal wrote.

Of course, "cancelling Halloween" like this creates its own new "range of inequities" for the kids affected.

The Nextdoor discussion that this article cites included a poll: "Shall we welcome this and call ourselves an inclusive community by cancelling Halloween across the town?" 82% of 166 different respondents to date (each person could vote only once) replied NO.

This is ridiculous. Halloween is a American tradition that has been going on in this country and this city since the early 1900s. When people come here, they should embrace our traditions, and we shouldn't have to exclude our traditions because they are offended by it? I'm sorry but that's the truth.

We constantly hear how "diversity" is good for our community and country, Really? Either we are one, meaning we are all Americans and a melting pot that has America the greatest country on the planet,
Or,
We are a salad bowl that never comes together. Like oil and water.

No one is forcing anyone to participate, do something else if this is not your cup of tea, but try it at least once so you know what the experience is like.

IMO, Any school official who supports canceling Halloween, needs to be removed from the education field!

I remember the debate in 1995. Not all children celebrate Halloween or Christmas or Easter and they should not be "put on the spot" by a celebration during school hours.

Halloween is not a religious holiday. He's talking about canceling Halloween parties because of thousand year old roots in Druid and Celtic festival? Seriously? Nobody in modern times associates Halloween with anything religious. And anyone who objects to Halloween for religious reasons is nutty.

Does Vargas have power yet?

Liberals ruin everything.

Yeah, let us be politically correct and cancel Halloween, Christmas, New Year (not everyone is using Gregorian calendar), Easter, Octoberfest(not everyone drinks beer), Columbus Day, what else? Oh, 4th of July is not something that is politically correct to celebrate (need to take into consideration the feelings of UK citizens).

To celebrate our democratic socialist state of California, there shall be only 1 holiday from this day forward for every public school in CA.

Gavin Newsom Day, October 10 or July 28 (Hugo Chavez birthdate) and schools can open late every day. Yay for Gavin and Vern. A picture of Gavin and Vern shall be placed in a public area in every public school.

We need to get our children properly educated to serve the state, sigh.....

Another stupid idea that quashes American tradition in the name of "being inclusive". In case the people who want to do this don't realize it, Halloween comes from Celtic tradition and, last time I checked, those people were ancestors of people who live in the US today.

It started with attacking Columbus Day (despite how Italians-Americans might feel about it) and has headed downhill ever since. For people who claim such tolerance, the inability to allow people to keep their traditions is shockingly intolerant.

When I was a child, we celebrated all sort of holidays. I went to school with Dutch kids, German kids, Japanese kids, Portuguese kids, Mexican kids, Jewish kids - all kinds of kids. How we learned to understand each other better wasn't by ignoring holidays and traditional celebrations but by SHARING them. I folded cranes, ate bratwurst, made burritos and latkes and all kinds of other things back in those intolerant 1960s. And we all celebrated American traditional holidays together and learned the origins of those celebrations. If you didn't want to celebrate, you at least learned the tradition.

The elimination of traditional holidays rooted in American culture is a disservice to the children. Those holidays that once brought us together are now being used as a wedge to tear us apart. I suspect the next victim will be Thanksgiving, since some people pray before they eat their dinner.

When you spend all your time looking to get offended, you will always be able to concoct a reason for it. That isn't trying to spare others. What it IS is the inability to accept that others don't view the world exactly as you do. We don't have embrace every tradition, but understanding them in cultural context brings us together. Banning celebrations because you don't understand or agree with them only shames those who hold those traditions and leaves those who don't in ignorance.

Those who take these actions claim to want to build community. What they actually do is tear communities apart. When all you do is seek to silence those you disagree with, that is NOT tolerance.

Halloween is not an American tradition. But it is a good way to sell candy and promote sweets. The tradition goes back 2,000 years which is somewhat older than the USA. Remember that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. The original tradition concerned warding off ghosts of the dead that had returned to Earth. An important matter to teach all school children. Ghosts are real, you know. Take Donald Trump, for example. Please. Can we make him go away?

"What would we all do without a bunch of..."

I'm not sure about you, but I like to laugh at the trolls who nourish themselves by stereotyping huge groups of individuals in order to _try_ to make themselves feel better about their own sad existence.
It's a very identifying trait ;)

"Principal cites concerns over inclusivity, 'negative impact' on community."

Heortophobia (from Greek heortḗ, "holiday") is an irrational fear of holidays. Holidays are occasions when people celebrate. What a fabulous opportunity for a "teaching" moment.

Halloween-themed phobias that concern Vern Thursday October 31st.

Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders
Astraphobia - Fear of thunder and lightning
Bogyphobia - Fear of the boogeyman
Chiroptophobia - Fear of bats
Coulrophobia - Fear of clowns

Hemophobia - Fear of blood
Lupophobia - Fear of wolves and werewolves
Maskaphobia - Fear of masks
Necrophobia - Fear of dead things
Nyctophobia - Fear of the dark
Phasmophobia - Fear of ghosts
Placophobia - Fear of tombstones

Samhainophobia - Fear of Halloween
Sanguivoriphobia - Fear of vampires
Selenophobia - Fear of the Moon
Skelephobia - Fear of skeletons
Teraphobia - Fear of monsters
Wiccaphobia - Fear of witches

Seeking Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the first step to understanding these irrational fears, learning to celebrate the holiday festivities might actually enhance your life, your loved ones and your students as well. Our school leaders need some education and counseling ASAP. What about the children who suffer from the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)?

I grew up in this area, we never had a school event for Halloween. Halloween was always an after school deal. I'm not sure of other schools had a party day back then, but I never felt like I was missing out on Halloween. I do see parades and party days more common now, but not with all schools.

Nobody is cancelling Halloween for these kids.
They, like so many others, are just not going to make a full party day of it at school.

Interesting. What is the fear of Trump? Rational? I wonder if Trump will tweet today (Halloween) that this is a celebration of his Presidency.

Seems like the other MVWSD schools were fine with Halloween: Web Link Happy Halloween!

It is sad the the SJWs took away a fine Americaqn tradition that is open to all people. I hope the kids found some other way to celebrate.

Well, as noted above, most schools never celebrated Halloween and it is American only in that it sells candy and costumes. On Halloween, after school, many kids went wild - some actually becoming the mostly evil creatures they were playing! They will return to normal only when the candy runs out.

Leave it to Gary to make this a political rant. He also manages to do a little virtue-signalling about eating sweet too. Bravo for hitting all the PC buttons!

However, it continues to prove the point that some people can't stand it when they don't get their way. Rather than learning to accept and deal with defeat, they seek to demonize the opposition and cast aspersions at the character of their opponents. This is a terrible lesson to teach children and is perpetuating the divisions we have in society.

Gary seeks to be offended, therefore he is always offended. Amazing how that works out.

BTW, I grew up here too and we ALWAYS celebrated Halloween. It doesn't take the whole day. The time consumed is no greater than that spent in any other diversity event the school chooses to put on. I guess the issue is that the Irish are no longer oppressed enough to qualify a "minority" anymore.

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?

Funny how TDS rears it’s ugly head in just about town square discussion.....

I'm confused what this is for, but as long gym is also cancelled for the same reason, I ok.