Lower Merion School District just announced their ban on Halloween parades at all six elementary schools due to "lack of inclusivity." This ban, in my opinion, is possibly one of the least helpful bans, as LMSD could be taking several other, more rational approaches to inclusivity for families who don't celebrate Halloween. 

According to Yahoo!, only 11% of Americans don't celebrate Halloween at all, but over 41% of Americans belong to at least one minority. Based on my experience as a student at LMSD (Cynwyd ES K-5, Bala Cynwyd MS in grade 7), they have several issues involving inclusivity of minorities. Examples include only discussing Black History for the month of February (as well as discussing the same people year after year), having barely any minority teachers (at BC, we have probably about 5-10 non-white teachers in a population of about 70 teachers), shutting down discussions about religion and race, etc. However, not in my 8 YEARS as an LMSD student have I ever experienced any issue with Halloween parades. In fact, I have only ever met ONE person who didn't celebrate Halloween, but they still wore a costume, celebrated the festivities, participated in the parade, and took a class photo without ever arguing or putting up a fight. So clearly, there is no issue about inclusivity, because there was no one being excluded in the first place.

Secondly, LMSD is concerned about "safety concerns over children parading outside among unscreened adults." For the record, there has never once been an incident recorded in history of a child getting seriously injured or dying of Halloween candy if that is their main concern. While parents might be concerned about potential street harm and kidnappings, the vast majority of people that go to LMSD schools live in areas with very low crime rates. Plus, it is not the school district's job to be policing parents on Halloween when the kids aren't on school property during school hours. So it kind of feels like the district is saying parents are ignorant and bad parents for letting their children go trick or treating. Not only that, almost all kids of elementary school age go trick or treating with one or more trusted adults (I'm almost 13 and I still trick or treat with my parents or a group of close friends) in a crowded, usually well-lit residential area full of witnesses everywhere! What person is going to kidnap a kid on a residential street with about 50 witnesses looking?

Thirdly, LMSD says that they don't want kids to be upset if their parents can't make it due to work obligations. I can understand this point being the daughter of two full-time physicians who often times couldn't make school events due to work, but at the same time, there are a hundred other parents there who sme of which will likely know at least one parent and can take pictures. Besides, I think it is important to teach kids that sometimes people have to miss out on important things because they have other things to do, as opposed to giving off the impression of "we don't want the kid to be sad because mom and dad can't make it to something that happens every year because they have to make money to pay bills and provide for their families." Sometimes, kids need to understand that mom and dad can't make every event, but that there are going to be other people supporting them there. 

Lastly, LMSD said in a statement to NBC Philadelphia that, "Those who don’t celebrate are invited to dress in a way that reflects something unique about them, their interests, culture or personality.” While I like the idea of representing different cultures, cultures have representative outfits for a reason. Most people of different cultures don't walk out of the house every day in extravagant culturally-traditional clothes (besides religious clothing like kepas and hijabs) because they are not made for every day, but only for specific and special occasions. People also wear clothes and jewelry to express their religion, and to associate those with Halloween costumes is pretty discriminatory. Besides, not everyone wants to express themselves through clothes, and that's ok. But why do they have to wear something representative while the other kids go to school dressed like monsters and characters from books, movies and TV shows?

In conclusion, I disagree with LMSD's approach to families that don't celebrate Halloween, as it is a waste of words and a useless rule that has reasoning that doesn't even involve them, alienates kids even more, and puts parents into an awkward position to feel like they are bad parents. And it is really unreasonable for the very small fraction of families with this issue to get special treatment that ruins the fun for everyone else. Halloween is supposed to be fun, but LMSD has turned it into a battle over discrimination, cultural appropriation, and political correctness. Please sign this petition to convince the district that this ban is unreasonable and needs to be stopped.