Melrose Schools Ditching Halloween, Spooking Parents Across City

MELROSE, MA — Halloween is going the way of Columbus and the Red Raider in Melrose Public Schools.

In a letter Friday to the school community, Superintendent Julie Kukenberger confirmed the rumors that had been bubbling like witch's brew: The district will no longer be celebrating Halloween.

"Over the past several years, MPS has worked to deemphasize Halloween and shift our focus toward community building through fall celebrations," Kukenberger wrote. "This is in line with our mission, vision, values and district priorities."

Parents have not taken the news well. School staff and administrators have been getting messages — some of which cross the line of decency, Patch was told — from parents asking why Halloween can't just be left alone. An online petition had more than 1,350 signatures as of Monday evening.

Parents are on a mission to save Halloween — literally, that's the hashtag on the flyer for a standout being called a "citywide costume parade" at the high school parking lot. The event has been moved from Tuesday to Thursday due to an incoming storm.

Kukenberger told Patch in a phone call Saturday that Halloween isn't being canceled, but it will no longer be what fall school celebrations revolve around.

"Our goal is to keep kids in school and celebrate their learning and progress," she said. "We're not in the business of excluding kids."

Halloween? Exclusive? Many parents have a hard time seeing a popular holiday that way.

"If Melrose is to truly be one community open to all, as Dr. K expresses in her letter, then we should not be cancelling Halloween in schools," parent Prescott White told Patch. "Halloween is a perfect example of our community coming together to support individuality."

• Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free for more local news and alerts.

But Kukenberger referenced examples of groups of students who dress up in themed costumes, leaving other students out of the mix. Or students who simply don't have the resources for elaborate costumes like other classmates.

When one student didn't have a costume, she said, a teacher drew them a face on a plate.

"Even if it's one kid, that's why some groups are often marginalized," Kukenberger said. "Because they aren't the majority culture. There's still lots of other ways for people to celebrate Halloween."

Meanwhile, kids who don't participate are candidates to stay home.

"There are some people who don't celebrate Halloween," Kukenberger said. "That'll mean some kids don't come at all that day."

Melrose as a whole isn't ditching the holiday. Some of the most popular events of the year — trick-or-treating at local businesses, The Rise of the Pumpkin People, the YMCA's Spooky Sprint 5K — are hotly anticipated. And outside the classroom is where they should stay, Kukenberger said.

"Why does it need to happen at school?" she asked. "Why is that a school responsibility as opposed to a community event?"

Some parents, though, are weary of what they see as traditions being targeted. The district this month celebrated its first Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. Now it's embarking on a quest to drop the Red Raider. These topics generate infinitely more online vitriol than reasonable discussion. They are a microcosm of the national culture wars that have infected local discourse.

And even for parents who find validity in those changes, Halloween doesn't harm anyone, right?

Wrong, Kukenberger said. Parents have asked if it's because of religions that don't celebrate the holiday, but that's not it. The decision centers around inclusion — a topic Kukenberger has consistently elevated in her relatively short tenure as superintendent. (She shared this post with her educators in explaining her decision.)

Some parents are asking: Why now? Why, in the midst of the pandemic, can't students who have been forced to wear masks for over a year wear the ones they want?

There were no specific complaints about Halloween that ever reached Kukenberger, though she said principals received some.

"But we've been working toward living our mission and vision and values, and if we say that inclusion matters, that means we have to think about all the choices that we make," she said.

And Kukenberger means "all." School leadership will wade through the calendar, month by month, and put all district celebrations and traditions under the microscope. The goal isn't to cancel anything, she said, but to be consistent across the district and inclusive.

Some of those decisions could end up riling the school community, as evidence here. But Kukenberger said this is an opportunity for parents who have asked what they can do help the district embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.

"We need you to have our backs," she said. "We want to be bold and be courageous, we want to do more, but we're not going to get it perfect every time. We want to know the community is going to support us."

Kukenberger said the district had been in the process of deemphasizing Halloween for a few years now. Individual schools have transitions to fall-themed celebrations, while some have continued to recognize the holiday — for instance, the seniors have a dress-up dance and the Roosevelt's Fall Festival included "trunk or treat." The hope is to have uniformity across the district, no easy task with six elementary schools.

There is no edict to eliminate Halloween, Kukenberger said. Kids aren't being sent home if they bring in jack-o'-lantern cookies, or even if they dress up (in compliance with the dress code.) But Kukenberger would prefer they leave the costumes — and the rest of their Halloween spirit — at home.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi and Instagram at Melrose Happening. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook