Students petition for holiday after Halloween; U-46 CEO sugarcoats his reply

Several suburban school districts are among those targeted by a nationwide wave of largely tongue-in-cheek petitions on change.org to have classes canceled the day after Halloween due to the anticipated exhaustion of partied-out students.

The petition for Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 was posted by Ryan Burton, who wrote "School after Halloween is very inconvenient." More than 4,600 people had signed the petition as of Tuesday afternoon.

District 211 officials declined to comment on the day-off request.

But a similar petition for Elgin Area School District U-46 received a direct response on social media from district Chief Executive Officer Tony Sanders that sticks to the spirit of the request.

"In honor of your petition, I will respond using candy names," Sanders posted. "You make me Snicker. You must think I'm one of the Dum Dums or maybe one of the Nerds. Take 5 and think about this. I'd be giving you a day Now & Later given the winter forecast. Sorry, but I'm a Milk Dud."

Among more than 5,700 responses on the U-46 petition, Haley Maguire posted, "i hope the nurse is ready for 400+ kids coming in w stomachaches and puking everywhere if we got school:)"

Lismari Vargas asked, "We don't have school on other holidays so why not this one?"

Adriana Lebensztejn declared: "Everybody will be high on SUGAR!!!"

Other suburban districts named in petitions include Cary Elementary District 26, Naperville Unit District 203, Geneva Unit District 304, Huntley Unit District 158, Libertyville-Vernon Hills High School District 128, Mundelein High School District 120 and West Aurora Unit District 129.

Officials from districts 203 and 304 also did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. District 120 Public Information Officer Ron Girard said administrators were unaware of the petition.

Given the lack of evidence that any district is treating the requests any more seriously than Sanders, the biggest question is whether the hundreds of petitions from across the country will significantly lower the success rate of change.org.

Also unclear is the possibility of future online referendums on snow days, homework assignments and Monday classes.