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Zombies And All Other Costumes Banned At College ZOMBIEFEST

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Florida Gulf Coast University will hold its big Zombiefest on Wednesday night. However, anyone who shows up to the campus event dressed as a zombie or as anything else will be turned away.

Officials at the taxpayer-funded school in Fort Myers, Fla. have flatly banned all costumes, masks and face paint from the annual Halloween event, reports The News-Press, the main local newspaper.

Students must also present their school identification to enter Zombiefest and they can’t re-enter once they leave.

The new rules are intended to ensure student safety, school spokeswoman Julie Gleason said.

They comes in response to an unsolved shooting earlier this month at Zombicon — another zombie-related event in apparently zombie-crazed Fort Myers. A 20-year-old junior college football player died in that shooting. Five other people suffered non-life threatening injuries. (RELATED: Shooting Takes Place At ZombiCon)

Florida Gulf Coast U. students say they understand the new rule preventing all costumes at a school Halloween event.

“I think it’s a good idea just to take that extra step and precautions, especially after what happened,” FGCU sophomore Priscilla Cummings told The News-Press. “The guy never was caught. Who knows? He could even go to this school.”

Another sophomore, Amanda Lopez, agreed.

“The masks and stuff, I think that was a big problem at the Zombiecon. There were people with fake weapons,” Lopez, who had been at Zombicon when the shooting occurred, told the newspaper. “Nobody thought twice about it because they thought it was props.”

A third student, FGCU programming board member Amanda Putnik, predicted that the fact that people won’t be able to dress up at the school’s Halloween event won’t depress attendance one bit.

“It should be just the same turnout, if not more,” Putnik enthusiastically told The News-Press.

As many as 20,000 people attended Zombicon in downtown Fort Myers on Oct. 17. Many attendees wore masks, garish zombie paint and the like.

Last year’s Zombiefest brought about 700 students.

FGCU’s Zombiefest will occur on the second floor of the student union. It begins at 9 p.m. In addition to a haunted house, there will be games, food and some kind of motorized pumpkin ride.

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Tags : zombies
Eric Owens