Halloween is nearly here, and a great number of our students are planning to dress up in costume, tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 31. If you are in the process of finalizing costume selection with your student in advance of the day, please consider these questions together: 

• Is your child's costume consistent with school norms around reasonable attire (i.e.: is there a risk of over-sharing? Will they be able to participate in all of their learning while in costume)? 
• Does your child's costume involve a weapon? 
• Does your child's costume represent a negative stereotype? 
• Does your child’s costume involve a mask that hides their identity entirely? (We need to be able to recognize if the student in costume is an Elboya student.) 
• Does your child’s costume allude to committing acts of violence against others? 
• Does your child’s costume involve excessively gory elements? 
• Does it involve changing the colour of their skin? (Shrek green is ok, however emulating another nationality/race is unacceptable) 
• Does it allude to a culture that is not the child's own, such as a kimono, a turban or a feather headdress, etc.? 
• Does it mock religious beliefs (rabbi, nun or priest or cleric or imam, etc.)? 
• Does it mock the LGBTQ+ community? 
• Is it based on tragic or violent historical moments, such as slavery, the Holocaust, residential schools or cultural role play? 

If the response to any of these questions is yes, we would ask you and your child to reconsider the costume that they will be wearing to school. We may ask them to change into attire that meets our standard of dress. 

It is our hope that our whole Elboya community will be able to enjoy the Halloween activities without feeling offended, upset or uncomfortable. 

We are looking forward to some fun activities which include a costume parade for K-Gr.5 and a costume contest for Gr. 6-9.

Thank you for your support!

 Elboya Staff.