NEWTON, Mass. — When an ICKids in Newton teacher shared pictures of students in a black history activity titled “black face,” one parent who wanted to remain anonymous said it was time to take her two and three-year-old out of the school.
“I hope peoples licenses are taken because this is very sensitive,” the parent said.
ICKids fired the daycare teacher, but the community was so outraged they planned a protest there Tuesday morning.
Before that could happen, the school posted a note on the door saying it is closed until further notice.
The apology note was also posted on their Facebook page.
It reads in part:
“Director was away of the center for personal issues and was aware of said incident after the parent brought it to her attention and this was immediately addressed. The activity was removed from the classroom and the teacher reprimanded for such actions.
Management was made aware of activity circulating social media by a parent who brought it to our attention on Feb 11, 2022 that “Blackface” associated with the daycare was going around on Facebook.
While wording of Facebook apology was not the best statement, we were trying to send a message to say that research for toddler curriculum was not executed or completed in the manner that it should have been, so we apologize to every and anyone this might have offended.
In the event that we reopen our doors all staff will be trained in Diversity and creating curriculum for the birth to 5 year old age group. We would also aim high for a more diverse staff with strong child care background knowledge and experience. Multicultural issues in child care and other mandated professional development will be done continuously through the year.”
However, the anonymous parent who helped make the incident go viral, said she’s not accepting the apology.
“It was very insulting,” she said. “You are supposed to be educators trying to teach young children. That’s very alarming and concerning and I just wonder what else they did not catch.”
She says whatever else the school did not catch, she now has to make up for.
“We’re going to probably have to have more conversations about their skin and being proud of their skin,” she said. “It’ll be more of an ongoing experience of learning for them and myself.”
The Anti-Defamation League says an activity like this reinforces a system of policies and practices that create a lack of emotional and physical safety for Black people collectively.
“Blackface dates back to the 19th century as a practice in which white performers would dress up as characters of Black people and reinforce harmful anti-black stereotypes including ideas that Black people were inferior unintelligent lazy and inarticulate,” said Danika Manso-Brown, Director Of Education at Anti-Defamation League New England. “Those forms of propaganda were used to reinforce things like Jim Crow laws which existed up until 56 years ago.”
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