MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The principal and PTA presidents of Seth Boyden Demonstration School in Maplewood have decided that the elementary school will not celebrate Halloween this year, a move that has drawn some controversy on a local and national level.
In a letter sent home to parents on Oct. 12, Principal Mark Quiles and PTA Co-Presidents Amelia Riekenberg and Donna Upton said in-school Halloween activities would not take place on Friday, Oct. 30, in an effort to accommodate the feelings of all children. They explained that last year 120 students — or 20 percent of the school’s population — chose not to take place in the holiday festivities. Since the school values inclusion and respect for all, they said they believe not holding the annual celebration would be best for everyone.
“As we all know, one of the strengths of Seth Boyden is that we are such a diverse community, with many cultures represented, and that we truly value each one,” the letter read. “In the past, in-school celebrations of Halloween have made many of our students feel left out.
“As a result, after careful consideration and deliberation, we have decided not to hold in-school Halloween activities on Friday, Oct. 30,” the letter read.
In a statement to the News-Record, Riekenberg clarified that her reasoning for not celebrating Halloween actually had nothing to do with “diversity” in itself, nor did her decision come as a result of parent complaints — in fact, she said she received none. The PTA co-president added that religion also never entered into the discussion as to whether to celebrate the holiday because, to her, it does not matter whether it was the parents’ faith, culture, personal philosophies or inability to afford a costume that were the reasons they chose not to have their children participate in the festivities.
What matters to her, Riekenberg said, is preventing children from feeling like they are missing out.
“I have escorted children out of a classroom getting ready to celebrate Halloween — with candy and other fun items — and I have witnessed quiet, sad faces,” Riekenberg said. “And I have seen tears from children who don’t have a costume or whose mom/dad/guardian cannot come to school like the other parents because he or she cannot take off from work.
“The child who comes to school with the opt-out form filled in by his or her family, most often, knows only that he or she is being excluded from something that looks fun,” she said. “And this is what matters to me. I want every child to feel valued. No child should feel left out in his or her own school.”
Riekenberg pointed out that Seth Boyden students who want to celebrate Halloween will have ample opportunity to trick or treat and attend holiday parties in Maplewood and South Orange on their own time. School district spokeswoman Suzanne Turner also said in an Oct. 23 email to the News-Record that the school did host a general fall celebration of its own — a Harvest Festival on Oct. 17 — that featured a cupcake-decorating contest, pumpkin painting, face painting, pony rides and a bounce house. Meanwhile, Turner said the district’s five other elementary schools will celebrate Halloween as planned.
And unlike last year — when Quiles announced his intention not to celebrate Halloween at Seth Boyden, only to have his decision reversed by then-acting Superintendent of Schools James Memoli amid a public backlash — the South Orange-Maplewood School District is backing Seth Boyden’s authority to govern itself.
“Given the large number of families who opt out of school-based Halloween celebrations there each year, district administrators agreed that this is an issue that is specific to the Seth Boyden community,” Superintendent of School John Ramos Sr. said in a statement to the News-Record. “We respect the decision that has been made at the school level. We understand that many families really enjoy the Halloween tradition and of course are not suggesting that anyone cancel or change how they celebrate Halloween outside of school.”
Board of Education President Wayne Eastman, whose children attended Seth Boyden years ago, agreed that the issue is restricted to that particular school. As such, Eastman said its leaders should be responsible for making decisions on how to handle the situation.
“This individual school decision is in the heart of how public education should work,” Eastman told the News-Record in an Oct. 22 interview. “We in America believe in local control of education at the district level with school board elections and local policy making. And by extension, there should be a great deal of flexibility at the school level to respond to special circumstances.”
Still, many believe that Seth Boyden’s decision was a bad one. With the matter attracting national media attention, numerous people have taken to the Internet to voice their criticism. A thread on the Maplewood Online message board has garnered several posts opposing the school’s decision, particularly concerning the perception that school leaders are putting the interests of a minority group of students over the majority by not celebrating Halloween.
“Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a bit much, which is what it feels like in this case,” one commenter said. “At what point do some people’s private choices begin to dictate public policy for everyone else? At what point is it the community’s responsibility to curtail its normal activities in order to help a small section of children to avoid a situation that might make them feel wistful or uncomfortable because of the paths their parents have chosen for them?”
Others insisted that religion must have played a role in the school’s decision not to celebrate Halloween, which originated thousands of years ago as the ancient Celtic festival Samhain but eventually took its current name as a way to commemorate the eve of the Catholic holiday All Saint’s Day during the eighth century. Some commenters said that Halloween is celebrated in schools secularly, and should therefore be immune to religious objection.
“No secular part of the school curriculum or of school life — academic or otherwise — should be eliminated because of the religious objections of anyone,” one commenter said. “By eliminating the Halloween parade, the principal is imposing on the community the religious objections by a few to a secular, traditional celebration. I find that deeply objectionable.”
Turner confirmed that the district has received complaints about the Seth Boyden decision, but pointed out that most of the phone calls and emails received were from people who are not residents of Maplewood or South Orange.
Even within the two towns, Seth Boyden parent Ian Grodman said he has observed that the vast majority of protest seems to be coming from people outside the Seth Boyden community. Grodman himself said he has no objection to the decision doing away with Halloween, adding that he does not see the reason for such an outcry.
“I think it’s really a non-issue,” Grodman told the News-Record in an Oct. 23 phone interview. “I think the focus of most families at Seth Boyden is making sure that every child has the best education possible, and I don’t see how a Halloween parade really has anything to do with that. I would tell (objectors) to put their energy into creating an uproar about school funding and issues like that. I just think that’s energy better expended.”
Fellow Seth Boyden parent Susie Adamson, a former PTA president for the school, said she is strongly in favor of the decision not to celebrate Halloween and would not mind seeing the policy extend to the rest of the district. That is because, in her view, Adamson said the issue is not a matter of favoring the minority over the majority or robbing students of childhood memories since every child should count and the school offers plenty of other activities to make learning fun. Rather, it is a matter of whether class time should really be used to celebrate something that is not even an official holiday, she said.
“To me it’s logical rather than just emotional,” Adamson, who said this was a topic of debate within the PTA during and before her tenure as president a few years ago, told the News-Record in an Oct. 23 phone interview. “One out of five children are not participating in an activity that we are taking time out of the school day to do. And it’s not just one hour for the parade as some people like to think — it is hours of distraction and preparation and aftermath. It just doesn’t feel like the best use of our time and resources.”