(Instagram post from Chinook Coyotes)

By David Opinko

Chinook High apologizes for social media post comparing police to violent oppressors

Oct 27, 2021 | 11:09 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – UPDATE: The Lethbridge School Division has issued the following statement:

“Lethbridge School Division is aware of a Chinook High School Instagram post that included an inappropriate reference to law enforcement.

The post in question, which provided tips on appropriate Halloween costumes, represented an error in judgement – an error the school and the Division wishes to take full responsibility for.

Along with a written apology posted to the Chinook Instagram page, the school will also post a video apology, later today, to acknowledge the mistake that has been made.

Administrators at Chinook will be meeting with its students this afternoon to discuss the ramifications posts of this nature can have. A letter containing an apology on behalf of the entire Chinook community will also he sent home to parents by the end of the day.

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Lethbridge School Division also recognizes the serious nature of the error and offers sincere apologies to the entire law-enforcement community.

The Division is extremely appreciative of the efforts of our local police, who have worked tirelessly to develop relationships with our schools in an effort to make our learning spaces as safe as they can possibly be.

The Lethbridge Police Service has always been extremely responsive to our needs as a school division, and we greatly value that partnership.

Social media is a powerful tool, and both Chinook High School and Lethbridge School Division seek to learn from this mistake and improve upon our processes going forward.”

A local high school has taken down a social media post shared Wednesday morning and has issued an apology.

On Instagram, the Chinook Coyotes account, part of Chinook High School, posted an image with suggestions for Halloween costumes that students should avoid wearing.

(Instagram post from Chinook Coyotes)

Most of the suggestions are fairly straightforward – avoid “Costumes the belittle any community,” “costumes that perpetrate body shaming,” and “costumes depicting victims, survivors or people facing systemic oppression or violence (such as prisoners, people experiencing homelessness, etc.)”

One of the points, however, caught a lot of eyeballs.

Students were urged to avoid “Costumes depicting perpetrators of violence or oppression (police, Hitler, Columbus, Ted Bundy.”

Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf and Cardston-Siksika MLA Joseph Schow shared the post to their Facebook pages, saying that police officers should not be compared to “Perpetrators of violence and oppression,” and not listed in the same category as people like Adolf Hitler.

LNN reached out to the Lethbridge School Division. An official pointed out to us that the original image shared by Chinook Coyotes was taken from another account called On Canada Project that has no affiliation with the school.

The school has since taken the image down and replaced it with a different Costume Guidelines image. Chinook Coyotes also included the following apology:

“Hey Yotes! Halloween is almost here! Just a couple helpful reminders for your costumes Friday, thanks to @harryainlayhs for posting these tips. A previous post included further guidelines that included content that should never have been posted, specifically with respect to law enforcement. To link those in uniform to figures in history such as Hitler is deplorable and something that never should have been shared. We sincerely apologize for including this content and for any harm that it has caused. Happy Halloween.”