The most haunting time of the year! The day after Halloween has been a long struggle for both students and teachers with staying out late at night and then waking up early in the morning to study or teach in school but that day most people wouldn’t be able to give their full focus as the exhaustion sets in from the night before so with a shadow over the school, people are begging for a change and a day off on November 1st.

From the article [“Why Students Ghost the Day After Halloween (And What Schools Can Do About It)”], it states, “In Los Angeles, Nov. 1 is often the day with the district’s second-highest count of absent students—bested only by the day before winter break…”

Secondly, Another article [“Should we have school the day after Halloween?”] states, “Halloween is a once-in-a-year opportunity to not only eat as much candy as we want but also have a good time and laugh.” Additionally, it mentions, “Furthermore, Nov. 1 is usually the day young kids are recovering from the sugar highs of the previous day as well as catching up on lost sleep from late-night trick-or-treating.”

Woodbridge High journalism and English teacher, Kristina Miller, expressed how people would appreciate and react to a day off and said, “I think positive, I think so many students stay out so late on Halloween and it’s really an impossible ask to ask anybody to come in and be performing at their top level when they are already so tired and exhausted and having that flexibility would be more beneficial for students.”

She responded to multiple interview questions so we can get a insight on how teachers would feel about s day off from school after Halloween. “A lot of students and teachers have mentioned how they wish we had the day off after Halloween or a late start after Halloween so that way people got to sleep in. I know a lot of teachers who have small children as well and they go trick or treating with their children, so they also stay outside super late because they have little kids and then they come into school very tired the next day. So I know a lot of teacher and students have been very vocal about wanting that day off or taking a late start for that day,” Miller said.

A freshman from Woodbridge High, Elina Jamshidi said, “I feel kind of weird because I have school the next day and it was kind of exhausting and I feel like we shouldn’t have school the next day.”

Furthermore, from another perspective, an article [“Should we have school the day after Halloween?”] states, “Having school the day after Halloween is only worse and is a waste of time for both teachers and students.”

The authors propose that Halloween is a significant holiday, comparable to Christmas, and question why there shouldn’t be a day off from school.

Kristina Miller also said, “I feel like the week of Halloween is really challenging. A lot of students are really excited about the holidays. They have a hard time focusing because they are thinking about what costume they wanna wear and where they’re gonna go and if there’s gonna be a party and the next day. It’s like a candy fiasco with candy everywhere and people are really really hyper and that can cause issues with attention as well, which is because they all have so much sugar in their body.”

“If we had the day off, we could actually rest and recover, especially for the teachers who have small children. They need the time to rest, so having that day of rest will help us focus better the next following day because we will have time to recover,” Miller said.

Another freshman from Woodbridge High, Angelina Raskin, shared what she does on Halloween to figure out the usual time an average high schooler would be out.

“Usually on a Halloween night, I will hang out with my family at first and then I’d trick or treat with my friends or at least that’s what I did this year, usually just with my family, and I stay out until about 12 or 11. People are so tired after Halloween we should have a free day off because it’s technically a holiday, which means there shouldn’t be any school the day after,” Raskin said.

The performances after the day of Halloween are really bad. “They’re usually really sleepy and hyper at the same time,” said Ms. Miller.

Finally, the article [“Why Students Ghost the Day After Halloween (And What Schools Can Do About It)”] also gives reasons why this needs to be a day off by saying, “Not all absenteeism is the same. There’s some indication that unexcused absences rather than excused ones are what’s behind poor academic results for students who miss a lot of school.”