When I lived in that part of the country 20 something years ago, there was a town named War, West Virginia forty miles or so from where I lived. One of those WV coal mining towns that there's one way in and one way out. Keeping in mind that this area is known for its share of snake-handling church congregations.
One of our sales reps refused to go through there on Oct. 31. She said she'd been there the prior year on Halloween and half the town's men had gone crazy because word had gotten out that demons were set to take over the town. Telephone poles were cut down with chainsaws and many light bulbs were shot out. Probably wasn't safe for folks to dress up their kids as li'l monsters, I am guessing.
It's one of those "it is what it is" situations and as soon as I got an offer from a recruiter to relocate , I did. So I can believe the behavior of the WV students has likely been rehearsed before in some fashion.