Colorado’s Pueblo County High School went into lockdown for almost two hours because students and teachers freaked out over a female student wearing a trench coat and gas mask as a Halloween costume.The student was searched by authorities and not found to be carrying any weapons, and told staff at the school that her outfit was a Halloween costume, admittedly a bit early.
Alarmed students told teachers, teachers and administrators dragged the girl into the office to be interrogated. District 70 Superintendent Ed Smith said, “They reported immediately to a teacher what was happening…we could react quickly because of those students. When being questioned, the student said it was nothing more than a Halloween prank, but again, because of the world we live in now, we take all those kinds of things very seriously.”
Believe it or not, a SWAT team was called in and swept the school to ensure it was safe, because terrorists always signal their intent by wearing gas masks and trench coats.
The student is facing expulsion.
Rueful observations:
- Congratulations to hysterical, risk averse, reason-challenged school administrators, politicians and journalists, who have finally succeeded in making American youth terrified of everything. “Because of the world we live in now?” Because of the world you have indoctrinated—there’s that word again—children and most adults too into believing exists, because using common sense and proportion is just too darn hard.
- I’m wondering: what costume wouldn’t be expulsion-worthy today? A student disguised as a witch is engaging in blasphemy that some parents are bound to take as an infringement on their religious rights. A pirate threatens rape and pillaging; a police uniform presents a clear threat to black male students, especially if they are unarmed. Dressing as another ethnic group involves disrespect of that group’s cultural traditions and threatens to incite school violence when the enraged students react to cultural misappropriation. NFL football gear endorses domestic abuse and sexual harassment, not to mention racism because of those evil Washington Redskins. Ghosts are a veiled threat; nurse costumes salute female stereotypes, and princess costumes glorify them. No soldiers, cowboys, cowgirls, hunters, mobsters—guns are evil! EVIL! No real life killers, criminals or murderers…people who dress like them may be copycat killers. No sane student would dare wear the “ghostface” costume from “Scream” 1-4, because we know from the movies that sometimes a real maniac is inside. A kid wearing a Michael Myers (aka “The Shape”) mask from the “Halloween” movies might actually BE Michael Myers. You can’t even dress as a hockey goalie because Jason Voorhees ( “Friday the Thirteenth”) wore a goalie mask, and he killed more people than Michael. Even a doctor costume creates a legitimate fear that the kid might be a real doctor—you know, like Doogie Howser—and why is a doctor wandering around the school? EBOLA!!!!
- Once upon a time before schools went incompetent, stupid and mad simultaneously, such a student would explain she was just kidding and didn’t mean to cause a panic, the school would acknowledge that no panic should have occurred in a sane world, and that this was a lesson to the student that she was growing up in a world that was no longer sane; she would apologize and be assured that making mistakes was part of the educational process, and sentenced to pounding erasers for a week. Now, she has to face expulsion despite doing nothing except wearing a costume that any idiot should have been able to guess was not evidence of a real threat.
- Imagine if she had worn an Osama bin Laden mask! Everyone would have passed out from fear.
- It is time for schools to stop celebrating or acknowledging Halloween. The adults are no longer mature enough to handle it.
Finally, praise, envy and admiration are due to Drew Curtis’ FARK, which made the perfect comment on this ridiculous, depressing story:
“School locked down for two hours after student wears her ‘home made’ Halloween costume of a gas mask and trench coat. Student was suspended and now faces expulsion. Still no cool costume tweet from the President…”
Perfect.
Ethics Alarms 
Acceptable Halloween Costumes: Social Justice Activist (blogger), Media Critic, University Chief Diversity Officer, Activist Against Yacht Clubs.
Don’t forget white race baiter who identifies as black.
She’s actually one of this year’s hot Halloween costumes. If I dressed up for Halloween I’d consider it.
Looks like the Golden Age Sandman, who wore just such a costume (his main weapon was sleep gas, hence the mask). That said, some of the Golden Age stuff is probably not appropriate for today’s kids.
It was dumb to don a costume outside a Halloween event, but that merits a talking to and maybe an unexcused absence to go home and change, not expulsion and police intervention.
That said, maybe it IS time to get Halloween out of schools and into outside community events. That way the educational process doesn’t get interrupted and those who want nothing to do with the holiday don’t have to even see it.
I am increasingly tired of Halloween for my part. If anything just some friends and I hang out, distribute candy (to CHILDREN), and watch a dumb scary movie or something. Adults in 2015 don’t need a holiday to revert back to childhood, dress up, and act stupid; it’s what they do all the time anyway. Just go to a cosplay convention or something; they do those all year round.
I am increasingly tired of the emerging victim-as-God, fear-as-God, safety-as-God culture that allows one person’s bruised feelings to shut down anything that person disagrees with…if that person isn’t white, mainstream Christian (extreme Christians who celebrate NOTHING are frequently accommodated), straight, male, or traditional.
So you would distribute candy to this school’s administrators? So would I.
I’m tired of Halloween that begins the day after Labor Day and continues for two months until October 31. Houses around here have been decorated for a week already. Today, I saw adults walking the sidewalks wearing Halloween costumes three weeks early. What happened to the days when the Halloween celebration began and ended in a week and centered around children?
Unethical or not, if someone over age 12 comes for candy while we sit out on the front yard they *HAVE* to have a good trick or stunt or something before they get “paid”.
Yeah, I’d bet that someone else in that family is a fan of The Dodds Sandman who appeared in the mid-90s plus occasional JSA flashback, Maybe Dad’s into cosplay and its a family bonding project among the too sheltered to be allowed out in public.
Since Halloween is a Christianized pagan/Celtic celebration (‘All Hallow’s Eve,’ whereby adherents remember the dead), it shouldn’t be celebrated publicly anywhere — separation of Church and State, y’know. We can’t have public creches at Christmas, so why have schools celebrate this other quasi-Christian day? Shouldn’t every non-Christian be offended? Shouldn’t we act upon this misguided mandate to celebrate Halloween in public schools? Ban it, for this and the most obvious reason: as long as our misguided, moronic public school administrators feel the need/power to judge costumes as ‘appropriate’ or ‘inappropriate’ for political correctness, there is no point, no fun, no reason to have it even mentioned in the school venue.
Agree with Steve-O — get it out of the schools, leave it to unofficial community organizations and neighborhoods, solve problems like the one this post is about, and make one other major step forward: Take one more tiny bit of power out of the public school leadership, whose damage regarding academics is far more important than this. Still, the more we can erode their misguided power, the better.
In defense, it is much LESS Christian than Christmas or Easter, though many of the side & trivial trappings of Christmas and Easter have pagan roots, Halloween is much more a mix of pagan traditions and less Christian influence…
I would submit, that days like Halloween and April Fool’s Days exist to remind society to take their individual selves a little less seriously since 363 days of the year are devoted to being as serious as possible in our efforts for civilization…decidedly opposite of what Christmas and Easter compel man to consider: the most serious of possibilities that exist.
It’s easy to hate the latter 2.
A lot of schools have already banned Halloween costumes, typically stating that it’s too much of a distraction for students; My children haven’t worn one to school since preschool.
Wearing a Hillary mask could be construed as mocking the woman’s movement and scarier than all the Friday the Thirteenth movies put together.
If the kid were Muslim and had worn an Osama bin Laden mask I’m sure that would have been just fine. Diversity, you know.
Err on the side of caution…or is that stupidity?
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
I think Libby got it right. At some stage the school will be sued for millions because someone’s little darling was traumatised for life by something like this.
I blame the lawyers Jack. No ethics!
You are aware that Jack is a lawyer? Mostly ethics.
I have heard it said that 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
Can you cite the study that supports that stat…seems awfully low.
While I am the first to complain about how ridiculous schools are these days about threats, I have to admit this one had me spooked a little. It wasn’t Halloween, so of course it’s odd and potentially threatening. If I were the principal, I most likely would have searched her, her locker, and her car (if she was parked on school property). Assuming everything was okay, I would have taken away the mask and not given it back until the end of the day. I would not have handed out any punishment though — and I certainly would not have called the police.
That’s because you are reasonable.
If you think this school lockdown is preposterous, read the story entitled “Parents, Students Say 3rd Grader Terrorizing East Bay Elementary School.” (I know you hate embedded links, so I’ll just invite people to google it.)
A third-grader in the Bay Area in California has thrown tantrums, punched another child, screamed at people, locked himself in the bathroom and thrown trash cans. The principal, rather than grabbing the kid by the ear, taking him to the office and calling his parents, has been “forced” to “lock down all classrooms on campus,” not just once but “a few times.” The other students are too wimpy to stand up to him, and at least 30 parents have been keeping their children home from school in terror. These days, it’s easy to imagine the police being called soon to drag this kid to jail in handcuffs, followed by his expulsion and the cruel destruction of his prospects in life.
[when asked about her Halloween costume] This is my costume. I’m a homicidal maniac- they look just like everyone else.
Remember when Halloween was just a harmless kids’ day where they dressed up in costumes and went around the neighborhood to get treats from the neighbors? What the hell happened?