A Florida preschool is under fire after a 2-year old black girl was allegedly made to participate and handcuffed by her white peers during a reenactment of Rosa Parks in the school.
In the recently circulated images on the internet, a two-year-old is shown with her peers pretending to "fingerprint" her with paint and holding her hands behind her back. The disturbing images were also shared with their parents.
The Victim Was the Only Black Child in the Class
The incident occurred during a lesson on December 1 about Parks, the civil rights activist, wherein preschoolers reenacted the 1955 event in which Parks was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat at the front of a segregated bus.
NBC News reported that as per NAACP the girl was the only Black student in the class of Building Brains Academy, a minority-owned and operated preschool in Osceola, Florida. The outlet reported that the child was taken out of the school by her parents soon after the picture were released by the school.
"Rosa Parks was a woman that we would teach our daughter to look up to, but now our memory is stained. This is something we'll have to grow around and see how we can tell her this story differently," the girl's mother told the outlet.
In a letter written to the school authorities NAACP said, "We consider the activity an inappropriate trivialization of a significant historical event, insensitive to the struggles against segregation, and psychologically harmful to all students involved, especially Black students reenacting such a traumatic moment in American history."
According to the outlet, while NAACP in a press statement alleged that the girl was handcuffed and fingerprinted by a white peer. the preschool's spokesperson, Sandi Poreda, denied the claims. The school claimed that the peer was not white, and that no restraints of any kind were actually used, reported the outlet.
Outrage on Social Media
The incident drew widespread criticism on social media. "Building Brains Academy. 2-year child Handcuffed at Day care school in FLORIDA! You have some really sick, stupid teachers in Florida, who should be FIRED immediately!! Vile brainwashing going on, pushing hate on children," wrote a X user.
"The Building Brains Academy is under fire after a 2-year-old black girl was allegedly handcuffed by a white child posing as a cop during a Rosa Parks reenactment. This is incredibly abhorrent," read another post.
"Building Brains Academy? Start with the brainless teacher," opined a user.
