Day After Halloween Off

By Alex Wyckoff
Staff Writer

Due to the widespread participation in celebrations which last well into the night, Manhattan Beach Unified School District should implement a day off after Halloween.

Halloween is a national holiday, celebrated across the United States by people regardless of religious affiliation, however there is no time off around the end of October period the way that there is for the likes of Thanksgiving or the Winter holidays.

In 2012 dozens of students spent Halloween night celebrating at parties, babysitting younger siblings who wanted to go Trick or Treating, and other activities related to Halloween, all while balancing the large workload of their classes. The resulting lack of energy the following day severely disrupts the learning environment of classrooms, and tired students take in so little information that the day is wasted.

Having the day after Halloween off could present a problem for meeting the 180 day attendance requirement, not to mention that teachers could potentially face difficulty in fitting their curriculum into a semester or year which is already packed with many other break days.

This could easily be solved by reallocating the day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day so that it is instead placed immediately after Halloween. This would preserve the 180 attendance days, and provide teachers and students with a break with only minimal alteration to the year’s schedule.

Students who were interviewed about their participation in Halloween events last year have said that classes were lethargic and dreary. MBUSD is a district that prides itself heavily on it’s rigorous curriculum and strong academic accomplishments, meaning that any problem which derails either of these should be taken seriously and should be offered a solution.

Perhaps another solution, if it is too difficult to reallocate break days, would be to have a double late start on the day after Halloween, instead of a day off. This would allow students to be better rested and focused, and have more time to get their work done.

These solutions are all superior to the current practice. As it stands, the resulting lackluster energy means that students and teachers both lose out by having no day off after Halloween.

All in all, having a day off after Halloween would be prudent, as it would save time, energy, and morale for both students and teachers alike, and the administration should definitely consider implementing something of the sort.