What's Halloween Without School's Annual Parade, Bucks Parents Wonder?
By David Madden
LEVITTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- There's a bit of a dustup at one Bucks County elementary school over plans to change the way students mark the Halloween season.
When a new principal arrived at Emerson Elementary School in Bristol Township, teachers approached her about doing away with the school's half-century-old Halloween parade in favor of a harvest festival.
School spokeswoman Eileen Kelliher describes a harvest festival as "a seasonal treatment of math, art, reading," in order to "harness children's exuberance at this time of the year."
The idea, she says, is to keep the 350 kids at the school centered on their lessons -- although the planned festival does include a scarecrow-decorating contest.
Some members of the school's Parent-Teacher Organization say they are not happy with the move and, according to Kelliher, are organizing a parade of their own outside of school hours.
PTO officials were not immediately available for comment.
