Halloween gives new life to holiday fight
Kids can't all wear costumes

October 26, 2007
BY ANGELA CAPUTO Staff writer
It appears the flap about how holidays are celebrated at Ridgeland District 122 schools isn't dead yet.

School officials had hoped to end weeks of contentious debate about how - or even whether - to acknowledge the holidays celebrated by an increasingly diverse student body by instructing teachers and principals to plan events that celebrate Halloween, Christmas and Ramadan.

News that Halloween parties - costumes and all - won't be permitted in some first- and second-grade classrooms at Harnew Elementary School next week has parent Sandra Gamboa fuming.

Gamboa's two sons each brought home letters from their teachers Wednesday explaining how next Wednesday's festivities are scheduled to unfold.

Third-graders will be allowed to dress up for an official Halloween party, but first- and second-graders have been instructed differently.

The younger students are to leave their costumes at home because they won't be allowed at the academic-themed Fall Festival that's planned.

Now Gamboa's trying to figure out how to break the news to her 6-year-old son that he won't be able to wear his biker zombie costume to school like his big brother.

"I was told we're having Halloween," she said of the school board's October decision to keep the celebrations this year.

"If you're taking away costumes ... and calling it a fall festival ... aren't you taking away Halloween?" Gamboa said.

Discussions about how the district recognizes holidays took center stage last month when a parent brought the issue to the school board because she believed the traditions of Muslim students were being neglected.

Initially, officials decided to pull the plug on all of the holiday celebrations because they had become too distracting. Responding to a public outcry, they changed course and kept the Christmas and Halloween parties - but only on condition the Muslim holiday Ramadan be celebrated as well.

Exactly how they would mark each holiday was left up to the district's five individual schools to decide, Supt. Tom Smyth said.

The only districtwide guidelines that were established say the parties should be capped at 30 minutes and should held at the end of the school day.

"We established guidelines, and teachers are following that criteria," Smyth said of the upcoming and diverse October celebrations.

The first holiday celebrated under the refined guidelines was Ramadan, which occurred earlier this month.

Parent Elizabeth Zahdan, who pushed for the celebration of the Muslim holiday, said the first official Ramadan celebration showed promise. A group of more than 50 students, parents and teachers showed up for an after-school dinner to celebrate the end of the monthlong holiday.

But there's still room for improvement, the mother of three District 122 students said.

"We just want all of the children to be represented ... and to be proud of who they are."

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HALLOWEEN IS CREEPING UP ON US!!!!!