Halloween is the one night out of 365 days that kids and adults can be whoever or whatever they want to be, no judgement passed and no questions asked. It is a holiday everyone can enjoy, from kids gleefully collecting candy to adults and parents getting to observe their child’s happiness, to the elderly couple that looks forward to greeting all the kids at the door and handing out candy. However, when Halloween falls on a school day, with the exception of Friday, children are no longer able to spend the night in their own fantasy world, as the calling of school the next day prioritizes over a night of fun. Many schools have even gone to the extent of no longer allowing the classroom parties to be called Halloween parties, forcing people to call them fall parties in fear of offending someone. Although, if you asked children of all different backgrounds what Halloween was, the only answer you would get is a night where you dress up and get candy. Kids do not care about the origin of the holiday, they simply want to have fun. So why don’t schools automatically cancel school the day after Halloween?

In a poll ran online at debate.org, a staggering 87 percent of participants voted in favor of cancelling school. With many responses from adolescents, parents and teachers, the vast majority said that it would not only be beneficial to the kids, but to the teachers as well. Many studies have shown that sleepy kids do not function the same as a kid with a good night’s sleep, so teaching to a group of students on a sugar high crash is not beneficial to the students or the teachers. According to the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, sleep deprived children lose cognitive performance, are unable to pay attention and do not retain much short term memory. There is no use in having teachers try to teach a group of students that will not remember what they learned the next day, forcing the teacher to re-teach the subject.

The easiest solution to not having school on Nov. 1 would simply be to schedule an in-service day for teachers and take one away from whatever Monday or Friday it was originally planned on. With the amount of school we miss from those days already, what difference would it make by changing the date? Sure, those three-day weekends are nice, and it is easier to schedule something at the end of the week verses in the middle, but why not make the most out of a day we are already going to miss?

To me, Halloween is more than just a night of candy and staying up late; it is a night of self expression and exploration for children. Growing up, every one of my Halloween costumes represented my current fascination or something that I wanted to explore. The year I went as a cheerleader, I had started cheer camp. The year I went as Meg from the Disney movie Hercules, I had an obsession with Greek and Roman culture. Kids get to choose to be anything they want, exploring different career paths or just dressing up as something they like.

Flashback to last year around this same time a photo went viral of a little boy who dressed up as Elsa for Halloween, which according to some in our society, is something that may not be deemed acceptable at schools. More than likely the kid would be made fun of at school if he wore Frozen-themed clothing, and Halloween was the one night he felt safe enough to be who he truly was. When kids have school the next day, they are no longer able to fully explore who they are the night of Halloween because there is no time to go out and participate.

I am asking that USD 232 cancel school on Nov. 1 to allow children to fully experience the magic that is Halloween. We already miss school for so many other nationally recognized holidays such as Memorial Day and New Year’s, why should Halloween be any different?