A ‘Boo! Tee Hee! Full’ Halloween night

Jeremy Taitano, Student Council Governor for San Vicente Elementary School, brought his yet-to-be-named newly organized band to the School’s Halloween Party for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students Friday evening, Oct. 28, 2005.

Held around the school’s fountain by the quad, the STUCO-organized event tested the Student Council’s ability to plan and implement a school extracurricular activity. About 150 students, including some recent alumni residents in the neighborhood, trekked into the school’s frequently flooded center, imploring cosmic powers to hold off threatening clouds so that a “Boo! (surprise) Tee Hee! (laughter) Full” fest would materialize.

The evening began with a gathering of princesses and goblins, punks and pirates, with the night’s couture definite black, as food concessions dished out hot dogs, pizzas, barbecues, insect-spiked jellos, pumpkin-shaped pastries and cakes, and other delicacies.

Everyone stayed vigilant as Yvette Reyes’ bounty-hunting class ran a jailhouse, and for a price, one can pay for the “arrest” of anyone—teachers‚ included. Jail time was for 10 minutes but the option to “buy” one’s freedom at half the cost of being sent there.

Shortly after the angelus by the San Vicente parish church, Jeremy was joined by older brother Nathan Taitano on the saxophone, Sam Joyner Jr. on base guitar and drummer Andy Park. The group’s repertoire was pop and jazzy, to the quiet admiration of the students but great delight for the attending adults.

Before the evening dance, the ukulele group of Steven Tudela, Kevin Royal and Mike Vargas belted their rendition of the Hawaiin “Meri Lewa” song.

The evening dance, which highlighted the evening turned out to be a waiting out of who was going to hit the dance floor first. The young girls were ready and eager on the wings but the young boys were short on courage, and a little bit behind on hormonal interest to ask them to the dance floor. Numerous requests were made by both the girls and the boys for the students to be allowed to “break dance” but the danger presented by such moves as head spins and somersaults, previously executed by students at a previous student assembly, prompted the administrators to ban the crowd-pleasing moves.

By the end of the evening, the girls tired of waiting for the boys and began swaying with the music. The other half of the “Boo Tee Hee Full” celebrations include next Monday’s “haunted house” decorative motif of some homerooms, and the distribution of candy-grams prepared by students from candy donations from parents and teachers.

With no budgetary allocations for student councils, the STUCO whose major responsibility is to lead school assemblies, pays for its own extra-curricular activities, even augments PTA donations for equipments and supplies, fends for itself with fund raising events such as the Halloween Party.

Major STUCO expenses include the popular sixth grade Retreat, numerous field trips and the end of the year farewell and recognition ceremony. The STUCO survived their first test at orchestrating a social event with minimal direction from teachers and administrators.

To be sure, teachers Yvette Reyes, Cristina Yohannan, Barbara McDuff, Betty Miller, Eva Wilkins, Val Welch and School Administrative Assistant Steph Sakuma were present and on alert to be of assistance when needed. On hand to “chaperon” were parents Juanita Sablan, Margie Banaag, Salote George and others who unobtrusively stayed watchful in the shadows.