PRO: Let’s celebrate the holidays and wear our Halloween costumes

Today is Halloween, and on special days like this, we should be able to wear costumes during the school day.

In general, many students are excited to dress up for Halloween. As we know, today is a Monday, so it will be harder to celebrate. Being able to dress up at school would be a fun way to commemorate the holiday.

While I know it’s too late to dress up this year, next year would be an option since October 31 falls on a Tuesday, another day that’s tough to celebrate Halloween.

As far as school rules go, the only problem with being able to wear costumes in school would be the dress code. If a dress code can be enforced, wearing a costume for a holiday that a majority of students celebrate should be an option.

Even if a student doesn’t celebrate Halloween, a casual day would be a nice way to celebrate it. If we are able to dress up for Spirit Week and other days when fun accessories and outfits are allowed, then Halloween would be an easy implementation with a similar set of rules and restrictions.

Another idea could be a day where we could wear Halloween colors or just dress casually on October 31. It would be a fun thing for the entire student body to participate in. There is really no downside to being able to dress up if it is open to everyone, and a dress code is created for it. No school rules would be broken, and a great high school memory would be created.

Placing rules and restrictions on a Halloween dress down costume day would discourage any inappropriate attire for the day. Students are able to follow the dress down rules for Spirit Week, so they would be able to do so for Halloween.

In regard to costumes being distracting during the academic day, how would a costume distract someone from working? With the enforcement of rules, there would be no problems coming from costumes.

Allowing students to dress up would not only be easy to implement, but also it would be refreshing to be able to feel like young kids again. Costumes would not be disrupting any classes, and seeing spirit around the school would be a fun way to bond. Having the student body be able to experience this would make a regular school day into an exciting one.

Playing with the idea even further, dressing up could also be used for a class or club fundraiser. Being able to raise money to support John Carroll students while dressing up or just wearing casual would be beneficial for everyone involved.

This kind of event or occasion allows for another opportunity for more school spirit among all the classes. In the same way we have door decorating during the winter season for Christmas season, students can be united through dressing up. This would fill the halls with Halloween spirits and spooky costumes.

On November 1, everything would go back to normal, and students would return to the familiar uniform. Celebrating Halloween with costumes would mean so much to the students. – Gabby Albright

CON: Halloween costumes are distracting and have no place in school 

As today is October 31, students are putting the finishing touches on their Halloween costumes for tonight, whether it be ones of animated characters, celebrities, unique ideas, or any other costume they can think to be possible.

Although costumes for Halloween are exciting and fun to create, they need to be left at home.
The first issue is how distracting costumes can be. During Spirit Week, students know how hard it is to focus on school when preparing outfits and activities for the week. Wearing costumes to school for Halloween would be just another day wasted being distracted all day.

With JC being a private school, uniforms play a key role in a student’s school day, so allowing costumes would disrupt JC’s normal day. The uniform keeps unity among the students so that nobody will feel left out if they forget their costume or don’t have the same level of intricacy or quality of costumes.

Another issue is when JC holds Dress Down Days, we have specific rules about what is or is not permitted. It may be hard to follow dress code rules when it comes to Halloween costumes that can vary so drastically. It may be too hard to determine what could or could not be permitted.
In a similar idea, some people may not be able to complete a costume as things like masks, extreme makeup, and props would not be permitted for a school day.

Trying to gauge appropriateness among different students would also be a struggle. What is too much for a Halloween costume? Would this costume, character, or idea be appropriate for school? How would peers react?

Wearing costumes would be a mix between Dress Down Days and Spirit Week which is hard to decipher the difference not only in instances of dress code, but would students have to pay to wear costumes? That is a hard thing to determine for this day by administration.

Also, with Spirit Week occurring in the same month, would having a costume day on Halloween take away from the specialness of Spirit Week?

Another point is that there are teens and some students who don’t even plan to dress up for Halloween. As students get older, some find dressing up to be immature or stupid for high schoolers.

There could be a lack in participation, or those who do participate may feel uncomfortable if not everyone is dressed up. That is like being invited to a party and being told its a costume party when in reality it is not. That singles people out and puts them in an uncomfortable position.

My final point is that some students and their families may not celebrate Halloween. For those who believe Halloween is evil or simply choose not to celebrate it, it would not be fun for them to have others dress up around them.

I have never heard of a high school allowing students to wear costumes to school during Halloween. This would not be a good idea for JC for multiple reasons. – Madison Elliott