Thread: CA:Parents Clash Over Kindergarten Thanksgiving Costumes

Claremont parents clash over kindergarten Thanksgiving costumes

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Condit Elementary School parents including Lynette Struve and Andrew Loeffler, wearing a headdress, gathered in support of their children's right to wear traditional Thanksgiving costumes. The school will hold its annual event without the children dressed in costume.

Some say having students dress up as pilgrims and Native Americans is 'demeaning.' Their opponents say they are elitists injecting politics into a simple children's celebration.

By Seema Mehta
November 25, 2008


For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child's depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?

"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, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast. This year, the Mountain View children would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without "dehumanizing" her daughter's ancestry.

"There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype," she said.

Last week, rumors began to circulate on both campuses that the district was planning to cancel the event, and infuriated parents argued over the matter at a heated school board meeting Thursday. District Supt. David Cash announced at the end of the meeting that the two schools had tentatively decided to hold the event without the costumes, and sent a memo to parents Friday confirming the decision.

Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests.

But many parents, who are convinced the decision was made before the board meeting, accused administrators of bowing to political correctness.

Kathleen Lucas, a Condit parent who is of Choctaw heritage, said her son -- now a first-grader -- still wears the vest and feathered headband he made last year to celebrate the holiday.

"My son was so proud," she said. "In his eyes, he thinks that's what it looks like to be Indian."

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is "using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas," Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. "I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian, but I can put the dots together."

The debate is far from over. Some parents plan to send their children to school in costume Tuesday -- doubting that administrators will force them to take them off. The following day, some plan to keep their children home, costing the district attendance funds to punish them for modifying the event.

"She's not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear," said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View. "We're tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It's not right."

But others hoped that tempers would calm over the long holiday weekend, and the community could come together to have a fruitful discussion about Thanksgiving and its meaning.

"Its always a good thing to think about, critically, how we teach kids, even from very young ages, the message we want them to learn, and the respect for the diversity of the American experiences," said Jennifer Tilton, an assistant professor of race and ethnic studies at the University of Redlands and a Claremont parent who opposes the costumes.

Mehta is a Times staff writer.
seema.mehta@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 8033.story

Might have known...a group of anti-American college professors. These people turn my stomach and it really is a political agenda they are pushing. Just let the kids have some fun. Good Grief...is there no end to this insanity of the left!

Tell me again why multiculturism is good for our country. Tell mw again why our traditions are being attacked. I am navtive American and I don't think dresssing up as an Indain is demeaning. I don't and have never felt like a slave. So this person feels demeaned as an Indian? It just shows that the Indians and Pilgrims put animosity aside and gave thanks. How is that being master and slave? I think she should take up another segment of history. I use to want my grandchildren to go to Mt View as I live near claremont. I guess I just changed my mind. What a party pooper. Also, why should everyone be subjected to one persons views" Here again=s the majority has to be deposed becasue of the minority. What the hell is happening to our country?

John and Ken have been discussing this absurd story for days but wasn't able to listen today. They were going to send someone from their show to attend the school and see if any of the children wore their costumes anyway which they encouraged them to do. They have been talking to a mother who's daughter is in the class. According to her the kids have been working on their costumes for weeks. John and Ken were besides themselves.....one of them said 'Now they're going to take away Thanksgiving also from our schools?'
Curious to know how the day went.
Such elitist pc nonsense will soon remove what few traditions this country has left. Seems like all it takes nowadays is for one to ruin the fun for the majority.

My daughter had a great time dressing up as an Indian and participating in her school celebration of Thanksgiving. I see Thanksgiving as a positive holiday for American Indians, that one college professor has a giant chip on her shoulder, she needs to go on a vision quest out in the desert or mountains.

Maybe she didn't have a dream catcher when growing up.

The PC crowd is killing this nation and it's traditions. We're being overthrown by sedition that would not be allowed in a strong nation proud of it's heritage.

Claremont school Thanksgiving costumes create a commotion

11:54 AM, November 25, 2008
Nearly two dozen protesters were stationed this morning in front of Condit Elementary School in Claremont, the site of a decades-old Thanksgiving tradition that is under fire because kindergartners dress up in handmade pilgrim and Native American costumes.

After a handful of parents complained that the Native American headdresses and vests were demeaning, cartoonish stereotypes, the Claremont Unified School District eliminated the costumes from this year's festivities, but allowed the turkey feast to go forward.

The protesters were evenly split between parents who supported the costumes and parents who opposed the outfits, and their discussion grew so heated that school officials called police, who separated the protesters on separate sidewalks, said Lt. Dennis Smith of the Claremont Police Department.

Police are also paying extra attention to Claremont schools Supt. David Cash's home, after he called police to report he was receiving hate e-mails and feared for his safety, Smith said. The e-mails did not rise to the level of criminal prosecution.

Cash and Condit principal Tim Northrop did not return phone calls seeking comment, but school employees reported that the commotion in front of the school was heated.

"It's been wild," said one woman who declined to give her name. Meanwhile, the kindergartners -- some of whom showed up wearing their banned costumes -- frolicked on the playground, eating, running and chattering with friends, Smith said. "The kids were oblivious," he added, "as they should be."

--Seema Mehta

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

God, how rediculous.

I said to myself....I bet this is school is located in California....and sure enough, it is.

These insane parents need to be carted off somewhere to have a mental examination. This is beyond absurd and logic or reason. What's wrong with these people??? What drives them to such outlandlish, weird behavior besides being a far-left liberal, who lives to object to anything "American."?

WHAT do they hope to accomplish besides having the country think they are idiots???? Of course it's the same people who have no problems with tots being taught about gay lifestyles.