Superintendent: Be Vigilant of Your Children on Halloween
Decatur Metro | October 28, 2014 | 9:50 amCSD sent out this note from Superintendent Phyllis Edwards yesterday…
Fall is certainly a beautiful time of year. I am sure you are enjoying the cooler weather and changing leaves, football games, dances and school fall festivals. Many of our Decatur families celebrate Halloween. While Halloween can be a memorable and fun event, it can also pose concerns for the safety of your children, regardless of their age.
This year, Halloween falls on a Friday night. I urge you escort your children while they trick or treat, and to be especially aware of moving vehicles as your children travel from house to house. The CDC issued a very helpful list of safety tips for Halloween- read it by following this link.
If your children are older, I ask that each neighborhood keep a watch on playground areas, parks and school property, which in past years have become areas for students to gather. Alcohol use and illegal substances or inappropriate activities are never allowed to take place on school property. I am contacting the Chief of Police this week to ask that our school grounds be patrolled.
As you trick or treat through your neighborhood, please be aware and alert. If you should see or hear anything in your neighborhood that is not normal, please contact the police. If you are a school SLT member or PTA member, perhaps you can talk with your Principal about forming a patrol. Please become involved so we can help avert any unfortunate results.
While we are proud of our accomplishments, one of the most important priorities of the school system is to ensure that our students are safe. We wish our families a safe and fun Halloween.
Sincerely,
Dr. Phyllis Edwards, Superintendent
After the horrible event at the Winnona Park Elementary parking lot and woods a few years ago, we no longer allow trick or treating once our kids become teens. The idea is that trick or treating is for little kids and teens can be giving out candy or attending chaperoned parties–they shouldn’t be wandering the streets in unchaperoned clumps. Even fantastic great kids who would never do anything wrong can be the targets of groups of kids who are causing trouble or they can just plain be at the wrong place at the wrong time, completely inadvertently. Some of the kids at the WP fiasco were just meeting friends or stopping by to see what was going on–unfortunately what was going on was alcohol, weed, sex, and maybe even rape. Many other parents have adopted this t-or-t is for 12-and-under approach and I recommend it strongly to others. A Friday night Halloween has even more than the usual potential for trouble. If you do let your teens t-or-t–and the younger teens do tend to want to do it–please accompany them, even if it’s several blocks behind. Phone contact has not been good enough monitoring in the past.
There was an active conversation about teens and trick or treating on the Oakhurst neighborhood listserv and there was a general feeling among adults, that teen trick or treating is fine. Bad behavior is never fine.
so do we, or do we not, need t-or-t reform?
The final DHS football game on Halloween night. Teens are welcome to come and support the bulldogs.