A Miami preschool faced backlash from parents after a teacher allegedly put students in blackface to teach a lesson about Black History Month.
According to the Miami Herald, two parents from Studio Kids’ location in Miami’s Little River district sent in photos of the preschool toddlers covered in blackface and dressed up in costumes. The photos showed one student wearing a construction outfit with blackface and another student wearing a police uniform with blackface. It is unclear what the content of the lesson was.
Courtney Politis is a Black mother of one of the students in the teacher’s class where the alleged incident took place, and she was outraged. Her children weren’t present, but she was told by a parent that the assignment was for the students to dress up as different professions including a construction worker and police officer.
“You should know better as an educator,” Politis told the Miami Herald. “What else are you teaching our kids?”
Politis is just one of several parents that expressed their frustrations with the demonstrations. The pictures were shared in their parent group chat first last Friday, then Politis reached out to Studio Kids director Patricia Vitale through text message.
“This is racist,” according to Politis screenshot.
“I’m sorry?” Vitale responded.
“A lot of moms are very concerned,” replied Politis. Vitale then stated she was unaware of what was going on and replied, “What is racist?”
Vitale received a further explanation and proceeded to send out a mass text message to parents.
“We have not intended to offend anyone, and we are very sorry about any inconvenience,” said Vitale in a text message, according to screenshots. “The parents that know us, know that we have never had a bad intention in our institution.”
Politis is the only reported parent that has withdrawn her daughter from the school, but other parents spoke out to the media…
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