A South Florida daycare is in hot water after dressing preschoolers in blackface as part of Black History Month.
Friday, parents of children as young as two who attend Studio Kids Little River received photos on the school’s messaging app of their kids in blackface dressed as construction workers, police officers, and doctors. The photos were accompanied by a message that read “Black history month.”
The move has prompted parents to pull their children out of the school.
“You’re a certified, established institution, you should know better. I mean, ignorance on — about racism in 2023 is no longer ignorant, in my opinion,” Courtney Politis, whose 1-year-old daughter attended the daycare at the time, told CNN.
Politis told CNN one of the parents whose son is in the class contacted her and shared the screenshots with her, saying it was “sickening.” While Politis’ kids were not part of the same classroom, she said she immediately texted the preschool’s owner with the photos letting her know it was racist.
“I’m like, this is racist! Politis told Local 10 News. “And she proceeds to respond back with, ‘I’m sorry? I don’t understand?” The text continued to go on to say: “What is racist? In our school we don’t use this world (cq) neither we have this kind of mind.”
The preschool’s owner later sent a message to parents apologizing, saying, “We have not intended to offend anyone, and we’re very sorry about any inconvenience,” Local 10 reports.
Three days later, the owner sent another message to parents saying staff would receive additional training in response to the incident.
“We wanted to let all the parents know that we met on Friday afternoon with all the teachers and staff. We went over several ethical and multicultural education points. I will teach the team a class covering all the necessary topics regarding US history and multicultural education … you may rest assured this will never happen again,” the message read.
Still, Politis and other parents decided to pull their children out of Studio Kids.
