Some schools say no to costumes, official Halloween parties; others are OK with ghoul in school

For three area school districts, Halloween celebrations mean fun and games, with parties and other activities set for Oct. 31, administrators said.

At Jackson public schools, communications director Merideth Pobst said elementary schools have fall parties rather than Halloween parties.

“Elementary students don’t wear costumes, just because of the distraction in the learning day,” Pobst said.

But at the middle school and junior high, costumes are allowed within guidelines, she said.

Students’ apparel must meet the school dress code, Pobst said. Beyond that, masks aren’t allowed, and any costume deemed distracting, disrespectful or derogatory also is off limits.

Face paint and hair dye are allowed, Pobst said, but must be removed by the following day.

Classrooms don’t necessarily have parties at the middle school, Pobst said, but teachers will have a theme lesson sometimes.

For example, some of the sixth-grade language-arts teachers’ lessons will be on stories by the Brothers Grimm, she said.

The middle school has a new activity this year, Pobst said. The Villas of Jackson, an assisted-living facility near the middle school, offered to have a few costumed students walk the villas to go trick-or-treating, she said.

She said the student council sponsors a costume contest, with categories including scariest, most original and funniest.

On the evening of Oct. 30, Jackson’s Future Business Leaders of America, or FBLA, will go door to door in neighborhoods throughout Jackson, asking for canned goods rather than candy, Pobst said. Proceeds are donated to the Jackson Ministerial Alliance, she said.

In Cape Girardeau public schools, each elementary school’s celebration looks a bit different, communications director Dana Saverino said.

Alma Schrader Elementary School will have a Halloween parade at 2 p.m. Oct. 31, followed by Halloween parties in each classroom, Saverino said in an email Wednesday. All students can come in costume, and their parents are invited.

“Many of their parents come in costume as well,” Saverino wrote in the email.

At Blanchard Elementary, each grade is having a fall festival party Oct. 31; at Clippard Elementary School, each class is having a party on Halloween, Saverino wrote.

Franklin Elementary School will hold a fall festival from 6 to 7 p.m. Oct. 30, then each classroom will have a party on Halloween, Saverino said.

Jefferson Elementary School will celebrate the entire week of Oct. 23, Saverino wrote in the email, with a pirate-themed Fall Bookaneer Book Fair. On Oct. 25, the annual Trick or Treat Village and Cake Walk will be held at 5 p.m., and classroom parties Oct. 26, will celebrate fall, Saverino said.

Students at Central High School are allowed to come in costume Oct. 31, “provided that they are school appropriate,” Saverino wrote in the email.

At Scott City schools, superintendent Brian Lee said via email Wednesday elementary students can dress in costume and have a parade through the building, but weapons aren’t allowed.

Parents are invited to classroom parties, but they’re asked not to dress up, Lee wrote in the email.

The middle school and high school don’t dress up or have parties, Lee wrote.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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