The chilling season has arrived, and so have the controversies surrounding the holiday of Halloween. Students at State High have lucked out this year, having school off not only the day of Halloween but more importantly the day after, due to the end of the marking period. But as this chance event occurs, students debate if it should happen every year.
Whether it’s young kids being hyped up on sugar or high schoolers being out late with their friends, Halloween impacts every age group. Not only students but teachers as well, having their own plans and then having to direct unfocused students the following day.
Senior Yasameen Alshekhkder focused on the impact on older students.“[…] Especially for high schoolers […] they work a lot, they have a lot of homework to do, especially the ones that have a lot of AP classes,” she said. They shouldn’t feel pressured to skip out on Halloween fun because of having assignments due the next morning.
Government teacher Andrew Merritt considered the younger age group teachers, such as elementary and middle school. “[…] Especially elementary teachers would appreciate not having school,” he said. This introduces the unignorable fact that students, especially the younger ones, will be less attentive the next day, because of their sugar consumption.
“[Students will be] not focused even more, they’re not even sleeping because they were out the whole night, and now they’re eating sugar throughout the whole day,” Alshekhkder said.
“[It] might not be a bad idea to let them decompress and then come to school,” Merritt said.
The impact on families needs to be taken into consideration as well. It’s debatable whether having school off the day after Halloween would have a positive or negative effect on families. Merritt spoke to this question. “[…] As long as parents have enough lead time, they can make arrangements for child care after school or, you know, whatever they need,” he said. I don’t think it’d be negative.”
The time of the month also makes it a convenient day to have off.
“Make it an in-service day. We always have an in-service day around there anyway. It makes sense,” Merritt said.
Alshekhkder agreed. “A lot of students would appreciate not having school, because every once in a while you just need a day off, and I think that would be a really good time to not have school,” she said.
An article from the Talon Tribune, a high school newspaper from Silver Creek, Colorado, stated that there are around 120-140 absences the day of Halloween, and that number doubles for students skipping school the day after Halloween. This means that almost 300 students are absent the day after Halloween. Based on Merritt’s experiences, he agreed that there are a significant number of students missing the day of, and the day after. Regarding this discussion, Merritt asked the question State High is thinking: “Are the students telling us we need a day off?”
