Scary costume ban at Calgary schools dampens Halloween spirit

(From the Calgary Sun website)

Darth Vader has been forced out. Thor has fallen under the hammer of political correctness.

Any sign of blood, gore or death is likely to be met with a groan at the school doors, where costumes deemed violent are headed for the crypt.

At least that’s the fear of some kids and parents at two southeast elementary schools, as yet another fun childhood holiday is sent through the wringer of social sanitation, to emerge flat and boring.

Read the full, horrific story here.

Is Halloween Too Scary for Kids?

(Thanks for submitting this article, Roxane! This is from 'The Faster Times')

We take Halloween deadly serious at my house. In our front yard, heaps of fresh dirt cover new graves, a bloody brain roasts on a hibachi, femurs litter the ground. Standing amid all this store-bought devastation, 9-year-old Ethan inserts a severed arm into his own sweater sleeve, then gravely offers to shake my hand.

Is it really healthy to allow kids to feel the chill of good old fashioned terror this season? Or am I setting up my son for sleepless nights and future therapy? On the web, discussions of this parental concern are as plentiful as leftover candy corn.

Psychologists note that children younger than ten may be most vulnerable to Halloween’s horrors as they often have a hard time distinguishing the real and the not real: A kindergartner may be truly terrified of the zombie lurching at her, even if beneath the undead trappings it’s only jolly Uncle Fred.

Click here to read more. Click the 'comments' link beneath this article to leave yours.

No boo for you, say Calgary schools

It’s care, not scare this Halloween.

The holiday coming up Monday won’t be the fright fest it usually is for students at Colonel Walker and Ramsay Schools, which this year decided to ban scary, violent costumes.

Instead, the schools are making Halloween a celebration about caring and have asked students to wear non-violent costumes to reflect that, said Calgary Board of Education spokeswoman Karen Drummond.

“They decided to make Halloween a celebration of caring that aligns with the culture of their schools,” she said.

(Have comments? Please leave them below!)

Read the full article here.

Halloween candy plan

... we're almost there. "That" day is one week away. This article, submitted by Roxane and found on 'Today's Parent', offers up some helpful hints to parents on how to make sure their children still eat properly during the looming candy fest - click here, have a read, and feel free to post your comments using the link below!

Big business is bad for kids, author says

Multinational corporations are corroding children's rights on several fronts, according to a new book by Canadian legal scholar Joel Bakan.

In "Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children," Bakan argues that over the past three decades, governments have bestowed greater freedoms on multinationals, allowing them to boost profits by drugging, poisoning and brainwashing kids from a very young age.

Read more here - and if you have comments or thoughts, please click the 'comments'  link below, and let us know what they are.

(Thanks again, Roxane!)

Schools open lockers to advertising

(Thanks to Roxane for finding this article)

School lockers are becoming the latest venue for bombarding kids with advertising.

Just what that will look like is on display at the north suburban Centennial school administration building: four lockers wrapped in a bubblegum pink ad for the Mall of America's "Underwater Adventures" aquarium.

On Nov. 1, the school board is slated to decide whether it will allow the ads on up to 10 percent of the available surfaces in all of the district's seven schools. That includes lockers, walls and floors. The take for the district? $184,000 a year.

Click here to read the full article.

Haultain Parent Committee Meeting Dates

The following is a list of dates schedules for the Haultain Parent Council meetings:

November 17, 2011

December 8, 2011

January 19, 2012

March 15, 2012

April 19, 2012

May 10, 2012

Meetings are at 6:30pm-8:30pm in the school library. The meetings are run in a casual, friendly and efficient format and everyone is welcome. It is great opportunity to as questions, present ideas and meet people. Also, see the Essential Links list on this page for other relevant meeting times and dates