A petition to party?: BCPS urged to cancel school the day after Halloween

BY EMMA HUERTA

Although October 31 is another day of the week for most parents and students, something out of the ordinary occurs during the evening hours of this date. October 31 is the day of the extremely popular holiday known as Halloween.

Despite the holiday’s abnormal traditions—such as dressing up in strange costumes late at night, visiting strangers’ homes expecting free candy and threatening people with a ‘trick’ if sugary expectations aren’t met—it has become embedded in pop culture for what seems to be forever.

This year, Halloween fell on a Thursday, a school night, which led to both students and parents worrying about their planned events and festivities for that night of fright. 

In fact, Broward County families took their concerns to the next level, launching an online petition urging Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) administration to cancel school on Friday, November 1 after Halloween. The petition was created on change.org, a popular website open to the public for voicing opinions.

“I think Halloween should be recognized by BCPS due to the fact that every single teenager and child wants to be able to celebrate [it].”

“I believe that since Thursday is the day of Halloween and everyone stays up very late then school should be canceled on Friday since everyone will be very tired and a lot of people will probably not even show up and face the consequence of an absence,” Karen Doberman, the creator of the petition, wrote on the site’s description.

News about the petition spread like wildfire, eventually reaching CCHS families as well. A common claim from such supporters of the petition was that students would feel extremely tired after staying up late due to Halloween events.

“I heard about the petition from someone’s Snapchat story,” junior Rachel Abramson said. “I signed and shared the petition, [since] I really didn’t want to go to school the day after Halloween. I already knew I’ll be exhausted.”

The petition also apparently reached BCPS administration, with the official BCPS attendance Twitter clarifying that schools will continue their regular schedules on November 1.

As of the night of Halloween, the petition had already amassed over 110,000 signatures. 

“I think Halloween should be recognized by BCPS due to the fact that every single teenager and child wants to be able to celebrate [it],” Abramson said. “[But] I don’t think any change was truly incited, at least not for this year. Hopefully next year they will consider canceling school after Halloween.”

Photo by Anabella Garcia