The school where I work has Trunk-or-Treat as well. It was started as a way for the school to celebrate Halloween outside of the school day. We used to have a huge parade after lunch with all the kids in costumes and then a party afterward but it caused a lot of problems. There were some kids who couldn’t afford costumes, so they had to spend time in the counselor’s office making them. There were some parents that constantly pushed the envelope of what was appropriate for school and there were some that blatantly disregarded the costume rules, which then put the principal in a situation of having to decide whether or not to punish a student for their parent’s moronic choices. Then one year, we had a tragedy where a child was killed getting off the bus, when part of her costume blew or got caught under the bus and the bus ran her over when she tried to retrive it. After that, the principal used that as an excuse to move the whole celebration to after school, so she didn’t have to deal with the nonsense. Trunk-or-Treat is a lot of fun and the kids get to see each other in their costumes and it’s a safe environment to celebrate. My old parish had a similar event the Friday before Halloween and inside the gym, they had a Saints and martyrs museum, with the 8th graders dressed up as Saints and telling the kids about how they died a glorious death for Christ.
