It was brought to our attention that some people saw our mascot Bob’s “participation” in our Haunted House to be offensive. We feel terrible about that and want everyone to know that it was not at all intended.
Bob started out as our Anti-Bully character for Pink Shirt day and has morphed into a school mascot. We dress him up in a variety of outfits and have had him at Grad, fundraisers, FVRL contests, board meetings, etc.
It has always just been meant as a fun and silly thing. He generally wears something for our community partners, which to us symbolizes how those partners are always part of what we do, and whatever event we have Bob at; and we mean that to show how important those people are to us and how much a part of our program they all are.
When we decided to dress him up to have him “participate” in the Haunted House, we meant it in the same way as when we have had him at any other event. We unfortunately did not initially think of this inclusion of Bob as any different than the students who dress up and are part of the Haunted House, and overlooked the other ways in which it could be perceived, though we certainly now understand how it could be offensive.
It was only meant to be another event in which we had him “participate”, and certainly not meant to portray anything negative to anyone.
We are very sorry for offending anyone. It was truly not our intention.
Staff and students at ACE