Why don't they just have Halloween?

It's Annual Irritation Day here in Chaosville! Every year around Halloween our schools have their dress up days. "Do they have a Halloween parade so you can see all the sweeties in their costumes?" you ask. NO!! The Pre-K and kindergarten school has "Storybook Dress-Up Day" and the rest of the schools have "50s Day" to celebrate the 50th day of the school year. Both days are today this year. From Clay's school (pre-k & k) we got this notice:

We have also gotten prior admonitions against superhero costumes or movie characters and the like. The kids are supposed to bring the book their character is from so the teacher can read it to the class. When Raley was at ECC we went through the same thing. He was going trick-or-treating as Harry Potter that year so I thought that would work, being a literary character, but just to be safe I asked the teacher. "Well, no. That's not quite what we are hoping for." I was told. So he ended up going as a cowboy and took one of the thousand little books we have about the cowboy way of life. Imagine my surprise when I dropped him off to see Darth Vader, Superman and..wait for it...HARRY POTTER walking in to the school! Now those who know me well know I am a rule follower, sometimes to my detriment. This was one of those times. Raley was very distraught when he saw other kids wearing their costumes when I had made him follow the rules. Fast forward to today and it's Clay's turn at "Storybook Day". Part of me wanted to send him in his Wolverine costume, but the rule follower struck again. He looked adorable dressed as a farmer with a book about a visit to a farm. But there they were again...Optimus Prime, Batgirl, Power Rangers and even...you guessed it...HARRY POTTER! *sigh*
As I said earlier, the other campuses in town (there are 5 more) have "50s Day." This is just ridiculous!! Most of the teachers on every campus (in fact there are no males on the faculty until 3rd grade and then it's just the PE coach) pull out their poodle skirts. A lot of the girls wear them too as they are easy to come by at our local resale shops, and I am told they are not terribly difficult to make. In any case what are the boys supposed to do? Well, every year since the 1st grade, Raley has worn jeans and a white t-shirt. Sometimes we spike his hair, but this year it was too long and would have looked silly. I asked Jayme to cut his hair last night but it didn't get done. Oh, well. Raley couldn't care less!
I just don't see why the kids can't wear their freaking Halloween costumes! I understand that East Texas is mostly conservative and there are more churches in this town than schools, but most churches aren't totally against Halloween.
If we still live here when it's time for Pattie to go to school, I may have to lock the rule follower up for the day and let Pattie wear whatever she wants to on "Storybook Day."