A Pennsylvania school district in Montgomery County has decided to cancel Halloween parades at elementary schools and it’s due to safety and inclusivity concerns, according to reports.
The Lower Merion School District has hosted Halloween parades for more than 50 years, but that might have at least temporarily come to an end, according to 6ABC Action News.
To the school district’s six elementary schools, school administrators sent out letters about the decision to cancel the parades. Some parents are not happy with the decision, while others are reportedly relieved.
“They’re great. They’re fun and it’s the anticipation… Everybody talks about the costumes that they’re going to wear,” Linda Joseph, a parent in the school district, said via 6ABC Action News.
Joseph has many memories of her older children in the parades. Though she won’t have the same memories with her youngest child.
“I feel like it’s just crossing the line and where does it end? So, next people are going to be offended by pumpkins? So we’re going to take away pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns or pumpkin carving?” the parent asked.
But safety is the main concern. The district won’t be able to screen who comes to the parade, due to the fact that they aren’t outside, 6ABC Action News reported.
Amy Buckman, the director of school and community relations for Lower Merion School District, said: “We all saw what happened outside of a football game at Roxborough High School just a couple of weeks ago.”
Buckman also acknowledged the other issue is that not everyone celebrates the spooky holiday. Those students have had to sit in the library in the past previous years.
“We looked at all of that and we said, ‘Are the parades really that important to the students?’ And the answer we came up with is not really,” Buckman added.
* Article from: triblive.com