Author Spotlight
David Allegri
To party or not to party? It’s a question that surrounds Halloween.
Leading up to Oct. 31, the decision to celebrate with friends — and risk skipping school — is a daunting issue shared by all high school students.
This problem, though small, shouldn’t be a concern in the first place.
Halloween is my favorite holiday — the fall weather, the scary movies and (obviously) the candy. No other holiday encapsulates both spirit and spookiness, better than Halloween. Unfortunately for students, this year there will be no midnight “scream” viewing, or any monster mashes, because we’ll be taking notes at 7:40 a.m. sharp the next morning.
The situation contradicts itself. Why don’t we get the day off for one of the only holidays that’s supposed to be celebrated late at night? I don’t understand why we aren’t able to spare a single day for this great holiday — or better yet, the day after.
Up until sixth grade, I didn’t have a problem with still going to school the next day. I went to a Catholic school that didn’t have classes on Nov. 1 due to All Saints Day — a holiday that celebrates the saints honored in the Church. Throughout elementary school, I was spoiled with being able to stay up past midnight, watching all the Stephen King movies and eating all the Snickers I wanted, but now attending a public school, I wish I could go back.
Though it wouldn’t make sense for a public school to celebrate a Catholic holiday, we still have multiple days off throughout October. Though I appreciate any day off, me and 426 students would agree that we should just switch one of those days for Nov. 1, according to an instagram poll of 453 people.
My problem with the day after Halloween isn’t necessarily that we need to cancel that day — we just shouldn’t have school the next day. To solve this dilemma, the Halloween Costume Association proposed moving Halloween to the last Saturday of October according to Change.org.
The petition of this proposed idea has amassed over 159 thousand signatures since 2018, and it makes sense — moving Halloween to the last Saturday of the month wouldn’t require the district to give anymore days off, because students wouldn’t be attending class on a Sunday anyway.
Along with people not wanting to get up in the morning, it results in increased injuries when Halloween falls on a weeknight. There are 3800 Halloween-related injuries due to lack of reflective gear such as a flashlight or clip light, according to Britannica. Moving Halloween to a Saturday would not only reduce these injuries, but it would also increase the safety and enjoyment of the holiday because parents would be able to easily accompany their trick-or-treaters — and teeenagers would be able to stay up later.
Unfortunately, changing a holiday that has been celebrated for thousands of years would be logistically impossible.
Since we aren’t able to change the holiday, and we don’t have the day off this year, the only option is to wake up and go to school… unless you’re conveniently “sick.”
Since playing hookie is the last resort, many parents have to call their students out, flooding the attendance lines and leaving classrooms empty anyway. As of now senior skip day is scheduled for Nov. 1, or as Associate Principal Kristoffer Barikmo calls it: senior “excused absence” day.
Whether or not kids have the day off, there will always be kids who stay up late on Halloween night, because quite frankly — it’s Halloween. That’s what we do as kids. We only have a few more years until we have to worry about adult responsibilities, so for now, we should be able to stay up late on Halloween and indulge in as much candy as possible.
As much as I wish we wouldn’t have school on Tuesday, the hard truth is that we will. Hopefully next year, we’ll be able to convince the district to give us the day off, but for now, being “sick” might be the best option. As the spooky season draws to a close and Mariah Carey blares in all commercial shopping centers, I wish all of the “sick” students a happy Halloween.
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