According to documents obtained by us, the Halton District School Board, Ontario, Canada, encouraged children to wear sweaters to school in order to reduce heat and combat climate change.
Students who attend schools under the Halton District Schools Board, the same school board that created the famous teacher with prosthetic breasts asked their classmates to wear sweaters to school in order to lower the temperature. This was in an effort to “prevent climate change.”
An email to parents states that WWF asked Canadians to lower their thermostats by 2 degrees Celsius on National Sweater Day. This is to emphasize the importance of energy conservation in preventing climate change.
It continues, “Our school buildings will feel a little colder on February 2nd so we ask that all students bring or wear a sweater to school.”
The World Wildlife Foundation promotes the initiative and has several child-centric activist programs listed on its website.
Wear a cozy sweater tomorrow for National Sweater Day (Feb 2nd) as we turn down the heat to raise awareness about climate change! #WWF pic.twitter.com/OJieNPnIX6
— Mrs. Peluffo (@MrsPeluffoSJM) February 2, 2023
The email was also sent to parents encouraging children to walk to school the same day.
February 2nd is National Winter Walk to School Day. The letter asks that you consider leaving your car at home and walking to school on February 2. The letter suggests that children bring an extra set of clothes to use at school in case their clothes get ruined.
On February 2, 2023, the temperature in the region was 16 degrees. This felt like three degrees when you add in the wind chill.
A parent of one of the students said, asking to remain anonymous, that “they claim they’re saving all the world by making one sweater at a while, but forget that the cotton from those sweaters was most likely farmed by a child earning less than $1/day that, with any luck, will live to thirty years.”
District email updates also included information on “Indigenous Rights and Education” and offered support for students through “learning about anticolonial practices” and using “factual history and truths and the effects of colonialism.”
Today was National Sweater Day to support WWF. We turned down the heat, and wore our sweaters and toques to help fight climate change. @ON_EcoSchools pic.twitter.com/Rcvw7Pd7Sz
— Forest Glen P.S. (@fglwrdsb) February 7, 2019
