Puyallup schools pull plug on Halloween costume fetes

By ERIN VAN BRONKHORST
The Associated Press

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School officials have canceled Halloween costume parades for children in Puyallup — and some parents are angry enough to protest.

"I have one very disappointed little girl. She was going to be Dorothy. I've been sewing her costume," said Tonya Reynolds, mother of a second-grader at Maplewood Elementary School in Puyallup. Children in costumes have traditionally paraded through the school and partied during about an hour of class time at Halloween.

Reynolds plans to join a delegation of as many as 20 protesting parents at the Puyallup school board's meeting Monday.

Puyallup School District officials decided to cancel festivities to stop losing instructional time and to avoid offending believers in the Wiccan religion, a spokeswoman said.

"It takes time and when kids dress up in costumes it's a distraction. It takes the focus away from learning," said Karen Hansen, a district spokeswoman.

"The actual party might only be an hour, but activities getting ready for it, the excitement and focus on Halloween, takes away from our instructional time," Hansen told The Associated Press yesterday.

Wiccans who have met with school officials have not asked for cancellation of Halloween events, she said. They are entitled to protection like other religions under district rules.

"But they do ... express displeasure with witches, with pointy noses and witches flying on broomsticks, and that offends them and we don't want to be offensive to anyone," she said.

Parents at Maplewood were notified Wednesday that students may not wear or bring costumes to school on Oct. 29. Woodland Elementary School canceled a kindergarten costume parade but no other schools were affected, Hansen said.
 
Many schools in Puyallup and elsewhere have already changed to seasonal "harvest festivals," she added.

Parents said students already lose class time because schools close for a half-day every Wednesday. But the district spokeswoman said those hours, intended for staff development, are replaced at other times.