Update: Eastchester High Explains, Not Reverses, Halloween Cross-Dressing Ban

Update 1:40 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014: Eastchester school officials issued the following statements to clarify the district’s stance on the cross-dressing ban for Halloween. Media reports, including Patch’s story below, gave the wrong impression that the district reversed its ban when it did not.

From MaryEllen Meehan Byrne, MBA, MS (Ed), MSW, Public/Community Relations, Eastchester Schools:

The guidelines were not changed, nor has the rationale behind them changed. The whole point of the guidelines set out by the high school was to ensure that there would be no mockery of any student based on race, religion or gender - therefore COSTUMES that might be construed as such are not acceptable. If a student cross dresses as part of his or her lifestyle, that is totally acceptable. A costume is not.

We believe that our students, parents and community fully understand the goal of ensuring respect for all, regardless of race, religion or gender. It is unfortunate that those who misinterpreted this intention did not even attempt to contact the District for clarification.

From Dr. Walter Moran, Superintendent of the Eastchester School District

The High School Principal sent parents an email with guidelines concerning appropriate costumes in school for Halloween. These guidelines are intended to ensure that it would be a productive educational day for our high school students. Costumes that include weapons of any kind, masks which cover a student’s face or prevent them from being recognized, and costumes that include ethnic or religious subjects are not allowed. Included as well was that students should not “cross-dress” as a Halloween costume.

Let me be clear that any student has the absolute right to cross-dress any day or days, and the school respects that student’s personal decision. In an effort to respect the race, religion and gender of our students, we believe that Halloween costumes should not make light of this.

Original story: Eastchester High School and district officials have reversed an earlier decision to ban cross-dressing this Halloween and will allow such costumes, reports MyFoxNY.

The school had outlined what it considered to be appropriate and not appropriate this Halloween, and along with banning costumes that included weapons such as guns, knives or axes, it also said “Students are not allowed to ‘cross dress.’”

New York’s Empire State Pride Agenda, an LGBT advocacy group, objected, issuing a statement urging the school to reconsider.

“We call on Eastchester High School and Principal Jeffrey A. Capuano to reverse a potentially harmful and discriminatory dress-code policy that states that ‘students are not allowed to cross dress’ on Halloween,” the group wrote on its website. “Policing one’s gender expression has no place in our schools, especially on the one day of the year when some students may get to express themselves fully and freely without fear or repercussion.”

Sensing a growing controversy, district officials backed off the decision and explained that it was trying to prevent students from mocking each other through costumes, writes The Journal News.

“Let me be clear that any student has the absolute right to cross-dress any day or days, and the school respects that student’s personal decision,” wrote Eastchester Schools Superintendent Walter Moran in a statement quoted by The Journal News. “In an effort to respect the race, religion and gender of our students, we believe that Halloween costumes should not make light of this.”