Halloween is just around the corner, and people are preparing for a night of trick or treating, movie watching, or even partying. A common tradition is that kids, teens, and adults wear costumes, some even to school that day. While most schools allow for kids to wear costumes to school, Loyola, as of October 17, doesn’t. Loyola does wear uniforms, but other catholic schools in Illinois such as Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep, and St. Ignatius College Prep do as well. 

Recently, a junior, Ben Evans made a petition in order to change this rule to celebrate Halloween at Loyola. His goal was to get 500 signatures, which, compared to how many people are at Loyola is quite a lot, being that is the amount of students in one single grade. By the end of the first day, there were more than 100 signatures that included students of different grades, as well as some faculty and staff signatures.

The petition was quickly gaining popularity, Ben said, “The pace at which the petition was progressing with faculty, teachers, and students of all classes showed that it would’ve reached at least 500 signatures by the end of the first week.” Unfortunately the petition was taken away.

Sophia Dempsey offered to help, and by doing so, made a google form that was popular, but “currently progressing at an alarmingly slow pace.”

In response, faculty member Ms. Krein clarified that the junior student council, a while back, tried to get a dress down day. However, when she asked Principal Heintz, he said no to the idea. She said that Loyola students have more behavioral issues during dress down days. More JUGS are issued and if costumes were allowed deans would be too busy chasing down students who didn’t follow the dress code.

She also pointed out that she reached out to other Catholic schools in the area about dress down days and found that there are some much stricter than Loyola. One school has to only wear khakis and a spirit week shirt that the students must buy during spirit week.

Others have to pay $3 and $5 for certain dress downs. She explains she enjoys Halloween and tries to make fun activities for students to do in order to celebrate, such as the trick or treating around the school.

Returning back to the explanation she also mentioned that Loyola has a certain amount of dress down days, there being 16 this year, some also undetermined yet. Loyola is extremely lucky since some schools with uniforms have 2 at max.

When explaining about the petition, she said no to Evans’ first attempt during the email. She was hoping for a follow up. She said, “Students should have a conversation, that’s the best way to communicate. That should be the first step.” Her response happened Friday night after a long stressful week at school, so she mentioned she was tired. With the lack of follow up, she had no way to explain the details that she didn’t put in the email. 

On another note, around the country there are indeed schools who ban halloween costumes. In an article by Education World, they explain that some kids don’t celebrate Halloween or can not afford to buy extravagant costumes.

In another article by Mental Floss, they make a list of costumes that are even banned from schools. Some of the costumes or costume pieces listed were cowboys, sombreros, and even superheroes. The following are fairly innocent costumes, however could be seen as not culturally relative by certain people.

On the other side, parents of kids in a school in Michigan, pushed back against the schools ban on Halloween costumes and parties. In response to the angry parents, the principal revoked the ban. 

In order to make schools more inclusive, more and more schools are banning Halloween parties, costumes and more. In the eyes of some staff and cultures, it could be a good thing, but to students and kids, it suppresses a person’s creativity and ability to express himself or herself. Whichever side a person chooses, there are countless arguments for both sides. 

Despite not being able to have a Halloween dress down, students should look forward to all the other upcoming dress downs and activities later to come.