As students enter Monica Gonzalez’s history classroom on the first day of school on the Killough campus, they can’t help but notice the black and orange decorations hanging on the right side wall. They stop only a few inches from reaching their desks wondering why Halloween decorations are already out. Some are scared because she has skulls and graves along the shelves of history books.

“Students’ first impressions sometimes is they think I’m weird or that I might like death,” Gonzalez said. “So I always tell them I don’t like death or the devil, so that they don’t get mad or tell their parents.”

Gonzalez’s students don’t think she’s crazy, and actually think the opposite.

“I thought it was really inventive cause most people take them down afterwards, but the fact that she keeps them up there and doesn’t care is amazing,” sophomore Jordan French said.

Even when Halloween is over, the decorations are not going to come down.

“I don’t take my decorations off because it’s my favorite holiday and it’s who I am, so I keep it up there all year,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t want to take it down just so I can store it…it’s a pain, plus I don’t have any storage room in my class.”

Gonzalez’s love for Halloween dates back to when she was a young girl, and her costume preferences are now quite different.

“I like Halloween because my favorite color is black and being a little kid trick-or-treating was fun…dressing up and just having a good time,” Gonzalez said. “My favorite Halloween costume I wore was [when] Ryan [my husband] and I dressed up as Dexter and Deb. [It’s] not a school appropriate TV show because it’s bloody and gory with violence.”

While Gonzalez displays Halloween decorations all year in her classroom, her love for displaying the holiday’s spirit doesn’t extend anywhere else.

“I don’t have Halloween decorations at my house because I live in an apartment, but I do like looking at other peoples decorations,” Gonzalez said.