The Wellesley Townsman, following a public records request, has published the emails from an upset parent that wound up getting Fiske Elementary School students’ Dancing Trump talent show skit banned last month. The parent claimed that a skit making fun of President Obama never would have been allowed, and the parent threatened to send her kids to school to ridicule Hillary Clinton, Obama and the prophet Muhammad.
The emails posted also reveal correspondence between Fiske’s principal and the Wellesley Public Schools superintendent regarding the matter, and perhaps make them more sympathetic figures in this situation. As you can appreciate from the content of the letters, some staff at Fiske were left unsettled.
This woman threatened a school event and should be censured appropriately, including being barred from future school events. Why isn’t this a criminal matter? She could have raised her issues in an appropriate manner without threatening any inappropriate and hateful actions. Her immature and despicable actions go against everything our schools try to instill. Unfortunately she received reinforcement for her bad behavior and will probably escalate in a similar fashion in the future. I would like to know who she is so that my family can avoid this troubled person.
I totally agree with you that this is a police matter and the parent should have been banned from future school events.
Censoring political speech within our schools is unacceptable. Our students have First Amendment rights, and no one has a right not to be offended.
I think the most interesting part of the emails is that this mother says, “My husband is voting for Trump” and how she feels lucky to be married to someone as Republican as he is. Doesn’t this woman vote herself? Just seems odd to me.
I still feel that the superintendent’s email to the principal was weak. He is the one who caved on this and pulled the acts. If the teachers were feeling insecure based on the content of the emails– I know that I would have been worried that this crazy parent would show up at the talent show and causes problems or worse — harm people. So I would have called in Chief Cunningham and referred the emails to him and have him talk to the parent about the threats etc. This was a police matter and not a matter to censor and sweep under the rug. The parent is sill a problem for the future and the kids got censored– a lose-lose scenario