Just Call It Halloween, Nothing Else, Anne Arundel Council Proclaims

Amid talk of budget constraints and environmental impact fees, Anne Arundel leaders took time this week to weigh in on another controversial issue: Halloween.

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A County Council member -- outraged that some schools have ditched the name of the traditional holiday in favor of "Orange and Black Day" or fall festival -- submitted a resolution calling for a uniform celebration of Halloween in county public schools.

"I just think this political correctness thing has gone too far," said council member C. Edward Middlebrooks (R-Severna Park). "We have some schools calling it 'Harvest Day.' What are we even harvesting these days? Let's call it what it is, and let the kids be kids."

The nonbinding resolution encountered guffaws and giggles at a council meeting Monday night, but passed unanimously.

"I couldn't face my kid at home if I voted no," said council member Cathleen Marie Vitale (R-Severna Park), explaining her pro-Halloween vote.

When told of the council's hard-line stance on costumes, pumpkins and the H-word, some county school officials were speechless. "I don't know. . . . I'll have to see if we have any official response to that," said school spokeswoman Maneka Wade.

Although this appears to be the first time Anne Arundel leaders have taken a position on Halloween, similar action has cropped up in other school systems in the region. In 1983, for example, some Fairfax County parents calling themselves "Christian Citizens of Fairfax" waged a campaign against Halloween. In the early 1990s, Howard County asked its schools to steer clear of witches and goblins, and Frederick County encouraged schools to find alternative occasions for students to dress up.

The resolution in Anne Arundel, however, seems unlikely to spark action from the school board.

"We have a lot of budget and construction issues we're more concerned about at this point," said Tricia Johnson, school board president.

Currently, elementary school principals and their parent-teacher organizations decide what festivities to celebrate and what to call them. Some have "Book Character Day," when kids dress up as characters in books they are reading -- a compromise that makes the event both academic and fun, said Toni Carr, principal of Sunset Elementary in Pasadena.

This year, Windsor Farm Elementary in Annapolis has planned a fall festival and a Halloween parade.

"I don't know if the name thing even came up in planning these things," said Principal Randall Rice. "A lot of these things are passed on as traditions. We call it what the school has called it in the past. I never really thought it would be an issue."

For Middlebrooks, however, it's a matter of principle.

"We have to start standing up for things like this," he said. "I don't want my kids missing out on Halloween, and I don't want them being told it's something else it's not."

And with his Halloween resolution unanimously approved, Middlebrooks said he might tackle the matter of Christmas parties next. "But that's a whole other issue," he said. "It's not the season for that yet."

Upon hearing that comment yesterday, Rice flipped through the official school system calendar to December.

"We have that down as a 'Christmas/Winter Holiday,' " he said, sounding a little relieved. "That seems to cover all the bases."