On Tuesday, October 25, Upper School Principal, Bob Cairo sent out an email which addressed the costume guidelines for Halloween. In this email, he wrote that “costumes that depict a group of people, religion, gender, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, race or heritage are not permitted.” Because there is a fine line between costumes that are in good humor and costumes that are offensive, many students felt this email was necessary for the community to see.
Isaac Sonnenfeldt (V) said, “this email is a reminder that Fieldston is not a monoculture. There are a lot of different kinds of people in our community.”
Stella Silverstein (V) added, “The guidelines might prohibit certain jokes, but that’s the price that we as a community pay to ensure that everyone feels safe. Fieldston is the right amount of politically correct because we try our hardest not to offend anyone.”
Most students agreed that dressing up as an identifier different from one’s own is never permissible.
“Dressing up as a race or a religion might offend some people, and Fieldston should be a safe space for everyone,” said Abby Liman (V).
One main criticism of Fieldston’s PC culture is that people should not be shielded from issues that they will encounter in many spaces outside of Fieldston.
“At some point we need to understand that the world isn’t like this,” said an anonymous student.
Other students disagreed. “Fieldston is how we want the real world to be, so if we can learn how to be politically correct here, then we can bring that to other spaces and the world will really be like that,” Stella said, adding that “there is nothing wrong with trying to make the world safer for people.”
However, some students felt that the second guideline outlined in Mr. Cairo’s email, “costumes that contain profane messages or depict violence, drugs, or alcohol, and include questionable props or fake weapons are not allowed,” was going too far.
“The costumes that contain messages about drugs and alcohol are not something we need to be restricting,” said Liman, adding “I don’t think that costumes about drugs and alcohol would offend a group of people.”
Others agreed: “while being politically correct is a good thing, there is a point where it is a little bit ridiculous,” said one student, “I can’t say anything I truly mean.”
Overall, most students agreed that being mindful of our actions and words is one of the founding principles of Fieldston, and something that is unique about our school. However, the student who critiqued Fieldston’s policy requested that they not be named in the article, and several others declined to be interviewed because they were apprehensive to speak their minds.
A controversy at Yale University last Halloween also brought up this issue. After an email was sent to the school about appropriate costume guidelines, one lecturer feared that “American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience,” and that “increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.”
As a progressive institution, Fieldston values sensitivity and political correctness. Starting at a young age, students are taught to act with awareness and to consider the message that their words and actions may send. At assemblies, students share their pronouns along with their names to ensure that peers are addressed appropriately. In the past two years, a number of gender neutral bathrooms have been added to the school. Many Fieldston students agree with the liberal policies enacted at this institution, however some wonder: have we gone too far?
