Last fall, three students at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville got into trouble for wearing “Three Blind Mice” Halloween costumes — because the school’s Bias Incident Team said they were offensive to the disabled.
According to documents obtained by Heat Street, the students had posted pictures of themselves wearing the costume on Facebook, leading a Bias Incident Team member to report them.
“There was concern about their choice as it makes fun of a disability,” stated minutes from a meeting during which this very important issue was discussed.
According to Heat Street, the team also decided to follow up with the offending students, considering their costumes to be “a personnel issue in Residence Life” because the students were Residence Life staff members.
The photos of the costumes have since been removed from Facebook, although it’s not clear whether or not this was done at the urging of the team.
#related#Perhaps to prevent a grave tragedy such as this one from happening next year, administrators stressed that the students must “be pro-active next year before Halloween about choosing an appropriate Halloween costume,” according to minutes from at least two different Bias Incident Team meetings. The administrators added that they “may do an ‘inappropriate costumes’ de-briefing such as a news media article or overview.”
According to Heat Street, nothing in the documents suggested that any disabled students had actually complained about the costume.