The Cost of Disneyland’s Free Party

In Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” the little boy-puppet started on his way to school one morning but was lured to a carnival along with hundreds of other children and turned into burros. We just had a real-life repeat of this classic when Disneyland held an all-day Halloween party on a public school day.

I had 30% absentees in my high school science classes in Santa Ana as kids in costume tried to make the 8:30 a.m. “get in free” deadline that morning. Not only did we lose a day of instruction from this disruption of our classes, but each school affected will lose the state “ADA” (average daily attendance) funds, about $17 for each absent student.

If the 50,000 attending Disneyland’s “Halloween Megabash” were students, our schools lost some serious money to pay for an added day of Disneyland profit. The rascals who inherited Walt’s magical kingdom should be held up to public censure and advised not to do this again.

GARY REYNOLDS

Santa Ana

* I am amazed at the number of people, including teachers and school superintendents, blaming Disneyland for the lack of school attendance during the recent free admission day on a Monday.

Parents are the ones ultimately responsible for the well-being of their kids. They are encouraging unacceptable behavior by allowing their kids to goof off and ditch school. If parents were teaching the proper values at home, they wouldn’t succumb to stupid distractions that compete with the classroom for the attention of their kids.

Disneyland has every right to promote business during the slow season. I’m sure there were legitimate users of the free day, including vacationers with kids in year-round schools on authorized breaks and home-schoolers who didn’t have rigid Monday through Friday class schedules. Don’t blame Disney for all the parents who obviously should but just can’t say no.

GARY LIGGETT

Huntington Beach