Claremont Parents Promise Civil Disobedience Against Far Left, Grievance Activists

A different kind of Tea Party

In today's Los Angeles Times, you'll find a brouhaha has erupted over elementary school kids wearing Indian costumes to an annual Thanksgiving get together in the town of Claremont, California. The school board has gotten together at the urging of several retired professors, one of which is from Pitzer, and banned the headdress altogether, though the event is still on sans costumes. (Really, what's the point then?)

Naturally, parents are taking their stand. Some have promised to send their kids with headdress anyways, which recalls the great Boston tea party. And as you could expect, the blogosphere has gone wild and the sleepy little town of Claremont made it all the way to the top of The Drudge Report. The best write up of which is from none other than the indefatigable Claremont Insider who has some great photos of all the nuts who came out of the woodwork for the protest.

Here's the essential quote from one of those types:

"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.

And here are a few quotations from some of the parents who refuse to be bullied.

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."

Who could really blame Claremont parents for wanting to defend their children against PC bullies? At a time when Inland Empire has some of the highest unemployment in the country, it's natural that people find their meaning in tradition. Isn't it enough that Ms. Raheja's kindergarten daughter will get affirmative action into virtually any top college if she keeps her grades just slightly above a C+?

And what's Beth Bingham of the school board opinion on the matter of whether or not the children are taught "racism"? Shouldn't she be dealing with her underaged-drinking, stealing son?

Maybe it will be like, say Pomona College, and they'll ban a song without any racist origin whatsoever. (See the next issue of The Claremont Independent for more details.)