Schools Get Threats over Reports They’re ‘Canceling’ Halloween

A Connecticut school district has been getting serious threats after reports a few days ago that the schools would be “canceling” Halloween for students. A WTNH report from last week said that Newington schools do not want students bringing their costumes to school on Halloween.

Why? Because, as parents explained, “they got letters from the principals stating that since not everyone celebrates Halloween, it should not be celebrated.”

Some parents thought this was a silly bit of political correctness, and the story took off over the weekend. The Daily Caller ran a piece on it titled “Elementary Schools Ban Halloween Because Maybe Somebody Could Get Offended.”

William Collins, the superintendent of Newington Public Schools, sent a letter to parents yesterday [PDF] clearing things up. He says the controversy was a misunderstanding and he wasn’t going to comment on this in the first place, except that they started receiving “threatening and hateful phone calls and emails from national extremist groups.”

Collins said that the question of whether all students would be able to participate was considered by administrators, but it was not the singular factor that led to the decision to not hold costume parades. And by the way, that is the only thing they banned. Everyone’s still going to get to celebrate Halloween in school with activities, decorations, and such.

So you’re saying the internet jumped to conclusions about something? I’m shocked.

[h/t NBC Connecticut]
[image via Shutterstock]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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