Following protests from offended parents, district officials have told kindergarteners from two schools that they cannot wear construction- paper Pilgrim and Native American costumes to their Thanksgiving festivities.
Over the past four decades, children at the Condit and Mountain View elementary schools in Claremont, Calif., have alternated visiting each other to share a Thanksgiving feast and play day. The visitors dresses as Native Americans, the host class as Pilgrims. After a letter from an angered parent and a heated school board meeting, however, the costumes are no longer allowed. "It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history." Raheja, an English professor who specializes in Native American literature and whose mother is a Seneca, says kindergartners wearing fringed, brown vests and feathers constitutes "dressing up as a racist stereotype." Other parents in Claremont, however, are outraged, contending adults should not use kindergarteners to make political statements. "I was really upset with what is going on with the Thanksgiving feast," said Rose Ruth, a Mountain View grandparent, as reported by the Claremont Courier. "I am part Native American, and I am not offended because the children are dressing up. What offends me is that one percent can come in and dictate to the rest of us what we can do and what we cannot do. "And now the kindergarten costumes that they made now have to go home, and they can't wear them," said Ruth. "This is about the children, and they're only 5 years old. They're not adults; they're not trying to do anything wrong." http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81966 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
