South Bay School Axes Halloween Parade, Parents Fight Back

An elementary school in San Jose is doing away with its annual Halloween parade. Now, some parents are taking action to save it, though it could be too late.

The Oak Grove School District Board announced late Thursday that the annual Halloween parade at Hayes Elementary School will be canceled. School leaders say it’s because the parade cuts into too much classroom time.

Parents were notified earlier this month, in a letter from school officials that the parade wasn’t going to happen this year. Right away, one parent in particular, Lisa Giuliani, decided to take a stand, so she started a petition on change.org.

On the site, Giuliani writes, “We need to hold onto this tradition and provide our children with the memories of celebrating Halloween.” So far, it’s received 181 signatures.

Giuliani also started a Facebook page where parents have sounded off, saying things like: “There are just so many solutions here that could have been used and weren’t. As they say in Hayes, not cool.”
One fourth grader writes, “It’s really unfair. We do it every year and now they just took it away from us.”

A first grader says, “I am really sad because my friends don’t get to see my costume.”

But some Hayes teachers are upset, too, saying they wonder why parents aren’t petitioning for arts, science and P.E. programs that have been cut.

“The kids can go after school, they’ve got their own activities to do for Halloween,” said 2nd grade teacher Carol Graffius. “This is a learning environment. That’s what we should be doing. I want parents to be mad because we don’t have a science fair. Why aren’t they involved in putting that on at our school, not a Halloween parade?”

“It builds the children’s self-esteem,” Guiliani said, “”So I wouldn’t even consider it being a non-academic day, I would feel like it’s a real life to life day.”

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