'Squid Game' Halloween costumes are being banned by US schools; here's why

Amidst the massive craze of the popular Netflix series, Squid Game, a school district in New York released an announcement to ban Squid Game Halloween costumes when they learnt about the kids' enactment of the game during their recess period. 

Squid Game is the popular South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk that revolves around competition among 456 players who risk their lives to play a set of children's games to win a whopping amount of prize money. 

US Schools ban Squid Game Halloween costumes 

According to the reports by CNY Central, principals of three local elementary schools situated at Mott Road, Enders Road, and Fayetteville sent an email to the parents informing them about the ban they put on using Squid Game costumes on Halloween. They further urged the parents to discuss it with their children and revealed how they observed some students playing a version of the Squid Game. The principals further expressed their concern on the issue and stated that the show depicted the potentially violent nature of the game and added how it was inappropriate for the kids to play it in school. 

The Fayetteville-Manlius School District Superintendent Dr Craig Tice issued a statement on Tuesday speaking about the issue of kids taking Halloween costume ideas from the potentially violent show. It stated how the staff members of the school observed some students mimicking games from the series, Squid Game which was intended for mature audiences due to the violence depicted in the show. Tice further informed that the principals wanted to make sure that their families spoke to their children about the issue and reinforce the school message by not letting the students wear the Squid Game Halloween costume. The official statement read-

Each October, our elementary principals remind our families about our guidelines for Halloween costumes, namely that no items that can be interpreted as weapons should be brought to school, such as toy swords or guns, and that costumes should not be too gory or scary so as not to scare our younger students. Because of the COVID pandemic, there will once again be no Halloween parades this year.

Staff members have recently noted that some students at recess have been mimicking games from Squid Game, a Roblox video game and a Netflix show that is intended for mature audiences due to the violence depicted in the show. Because of this activity, our principals wanted to make sure our families are aware that it would be inappropriate for any student to wear to school a Halloween costume from this show because of the potential violent messages aligned with the costume.

They also wanted families to be aware that some of our younger students are talking about and mimicking aspects of the show/game at school so parents and guardians would have the opportunity to speak with their children themselves about it and reinforce the school message that games associated with violent behavior are not appropriate for recess.

Squid Game 

It is a popular South Korean survival tv series that was released in September 2021 and received worldwide critical acclaim, becoming  Netflix's most-watched series to date. The popular cast members of the series include actors namely Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, Park Hae-soo as Cho Sang-woo, Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho, Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok, Heo Sung-tae as Jang Deok-su, O Yeong-su as Oh Il-nam, Anupam Tripathi as Abdul Ali, Kim Joo-ryoung as Han Mi-nyeo and many others. 

Image: Instagram/@netflixkr