[Infowarrior] - Oh noes! No scary costumes allowed!

[Richard Forno]

Le sigh.....see what 'thinking of the kids" leads to???   Ick.

-rf



  Drop the Halloween Mask ! You Might Scare Somebody
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/us/30costume.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
LOS ANGELES — Little Bo Peep would make the cut at the Halloween  
parade at Riverside Drive Elementary School here on Friday, but the  
staff she used to menace her sheep would probably have to go.

Guns, daggers and other toy weapons have long been excisedfrom  
costumes at many school celebrations on Halloween. But in some  
classrooms across the country, the interpretation of what is too scary  
— or offensive, gross or saddening — is now also leading to an  
abundance of caution and some prohibitions.

In a school district in Illinois, students are being encouraged to  
dress up as historical characters or delicious food items rather than  
vampires or zombies. In Texas, a school has issued suggestions for  
“positive costumes” for the annual Halloween dance. At Riverside  
Drive, a Los Angeles public school in the San Fernando Valley, the  
Halloween parade is being defanged right down to its jagged fingertips.

“We’re balancing a tradition here with the times we live in,” said Tom  
Hernandez, a spokesman for District 202 in Plainfield, Ill., where  
costumes depicting animals and food (preferably carrots or pumpkins)  
are in favor.

Even at a public school named after the man who practically invented  
cloak and daggers for children, there are restrictions.

“Children are not allowed to bring any weapons or masks to the costume  
parade, no swords, and they can wear moderate face makeup — nothing  
extreme,” explained Addys Gonzalez, the office assistant at the Walt  
Disney Elementary School in Burbank, Calif.

A memo about costume appropriateness sent home recently by Riverside  
Drive’s principal made the following points:

¶They should not depict gangs or horror characters, or be scary.

¶Masks are allowed only during the parade.

¶Costumes may not demean any race, religion, nationality, handicapped  
condition or gender.

¶No fake fingernails.

¶No weapons, even fake ones.

¶Shoes must be worn.

Joel Bishoff’s children will make the cut at Riverside Drive. His  
second grader will be Dorothy (not the witch!) from “The Wizard of  
Oz,” while his fifth-grade son will wear a costume depicting a box of  
Wheaties.

“I’m not sure what is driving this memo,” Mr. Bishoff said. “But  
perhaps it is reaction to years past. Sometimes kids will have those  
‘Scream’ masks, but usually not too blood and gutsy. I mean, can’t  
parents have discretion? The fact is, if parents are too stupid to not  
send kids to school with hockey masks as Jason, they are probably too  
stupid to read this memo.”

Jennifer Kessler, the principal at the Riverside Drive school, did not  
return calls seeking an explanation of the policy. Riverside Drive  
goes beyond the Los Angeles Unified Public Schools guidelines, written  
a few years ago, said Monica Carazo, a spokeswoman for the system.  
Those guidelines discourage fake weapons, costumes that mock race or  
gender and anything too sexy; French maids are explicitly discouraged.

Parents and some educators said that restrictions like those at  
Riverside Drive often stemmed from a desire to protect smaller  
children from freakishly scary costumes, to maintain classroom order  
(spray-on hair color is often banned, for instance, because children  
tend to spray it all day long) and to keep from demeaning groups  
through costumes that play on stereotypes.

Some other institutions have taken a similar approach. The Chicago  
Children’s Museum has imposed costume restrictions on employees for  
several years. Jennifer Farrington, the museum’s president, said the  
restrictions had “emerged out of talks about diversity and stereotypes.”

“This is about staying true to our vision and values, and  
developmentally appropriate practice, not about being politically  
correct,” Ms. Farrington said, citing her own memo on the topic some  
years ago. “We’re about honoring and promoting diversity, not feeding  
children images of stereotypes.”

In some school districts, there are other motivating factors.

“Several years ago, there was some push back in our community,” said  
Mr. Hernandez, the school district spokesman in Plainfield, Ill. “Some  
people thought Halloween was a Satanic ritual. Well, let’s not say  
Satanic — let’s say they were not comfortable with what it represents.”

Still, no one in Plainfield wanted the Halloween celebrations, a long  
tradition in the school community there, to end. So guidelines were  
formed in favor of costumes that “portray positive images,” Mr.  
Hernandez said.

“If someone shows up in a witch costume, we’re not going to tell them  
to take it off,” he said, but the district will not countenance claws  
of any sort.

The change in costume mores has not been lost on those who make a  
living selling dress up.

“I would say people are becoming more classical and creative and  
staying away from things like Chucky,” said Shelly Shai, the owner of  
Shelly’s Dance & Costume Wear in Los Angeles, referring to a character  
in a series of horror films. “I think they have enough of that in  
daily life now with the movies that come out, which seem to only get  
worse and worse. And when it comes to dressing up, people don’t want  
to be one of a million vampires anyway.”

At James F. Bay Elementary in Seabrook, Tex., costumes are forbidden  
outright, according to the school’s principal, Erin Tite, but an  
exception was made for the Halloween dance.

“The purpose for the dance was to allow them a safe place to wear  
their costumes in place of trick or treating for some of our  
students,” Ms. Tite said in an e-mail message. “We established the  
guidelines of ‘positive costumes’ from the beginning, knowing what we  
might see if we chose not to establish boundaries.”