MELVILLE, N.Y. -- Blame Captain Underpants. At least a little.
This year -- partly because three Long Beach (N.Y.) High School seniors last year just had to emulate Mr. Underpants (left) in all his tighty-whitey glory -- Halloween costumes will be banned from the school this week.
No Wonder Womans, no pirates, no bloody ghouls allowed.
Principal Nicholas Restivo, who was on the front lines in the Captain Underpants drama, said the incident helped cement a decision he already was leaning toward.
"Captain Underpants certainly convinced me again that banning costumes was the right way to go," he said. "As a result of Captain Underpants, I found out that we are definitely in the minority of schools that allowed kids to come in wearing costumes."
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Costumes are still OK at Strathmore Elementary School in Aberdeen, N.J., but make-believe weapons are not.
"We send out letters a few weeks before Halloween telling parents that their children cannot wear masks or bring weapons of any kind to the school,'' said Kenneth Smith, the principal at Strathmore.
"We know that kids are kids," he said, "but times have changed."
Smith's letter this year spelled out in capital letters that students wearing Halloween costumes should not bring along toy "guns, knives or weapons."
The policy also was in effect last year, when boys and girls dressed in traditional costumes that should have included toy weapons looked as if they had been frisked and disarmed during circle reading time. The parade included a devil with no pitchfork, a Power Ranger without a laser blaster and a pint-size Batman who had been told to leave his utility belt at home.
In the post-Captain Underpants world at Long Beach High School, some students said they aren't going to let the so-not-fair ban stand without a fight. If the chubby star of Dav Pilkey's children's books can take on such adversaries as Professor Poopypants and the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies, well, they have their methods, too.
They are circulating a petition, and the word is some are planning to protest by showing up in costume anyway.
"The costume ban is ridiculous," said Meghan Beck, a junior. "It's one thing if the school won't let us wear outfits that are revealing or inappropriate, but if it is an innocent Halloween costume we should be allowed to wear it."
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But "innocent" is subjective.
One person's Satan could be someone else's hallway terror. And one person's fairy could be another's math class distraction.
So it was last year, when Chelsea Horowitz, Ashley Imhof and Eliana Levin donned red capes, white briefs, beige leotards and nude stockings for their Senior Week get-up.
Restivo was not amused. He sent the trio home after they refused to cover up.
Horowitz, 18, now a freshman at Hofstra University in Heamstead, N.Y., said she has no interest in playing the blame game, though she's quite aware that her former schoolmates are making the Captain Underpants connection.
"If people want to still mention my name and say it's my fault, that's OK, but I don't think it's our fault," she said. "He is going to punish everyone for Halloween because of something that happened last year?"
"I had to sit back and ask myself 'Are you being an ogre?' " Restivo said. "I'm being a principal. I'm not being an ogre."
The New York Times contributed to this report.
