San Francisco school educating students about culturally appropriate Halloween costumes

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Students these days are more aware than ever about not wearing culturally inappropriate Halloween costumes -- things like Indian chiefs or Mexican bandits.

Still, one school is emphasizing creativity while celebrating diversity.

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At San Francisco's Drew School students are asked to follow certain costume guidelines when dressing up for Halloween -- many of which are just a matter of common sense.

"Native people are people. Things like features have significant importance and it's not something you just grab out of a costume store. But the biggest thing, especially when we work here at Drew, is not to shame people, it's to educate and do better," said Director of Equity and Social Impact Juliana Greene.

Students here were invited to watch an online video called "My Culture is not a Costume."

The video's main purpose is to teach others to engage with those who display ignorance by opening up a conversation. For the most part, people are misinformed and are not acting out of malice.

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"In a perfect world, you shouldn't have to educate them and so you shouldn't feel like you need to, but if you're willing to take that time and do so, that's amazing and hopefully they learn from that," said student Maria Berman.

Berman is a senior here, which automatically makes her a superhero, hence the T-shirt.

The school welcomed non-conformists like the Disney character Belle in "Beauty and the Beast,"

and, of course, fictional characters -- which seldom lead to any kind of disagreement.

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