An official of a parent-teacher organization apologized after members of the Santa Clarita, California, community were shocked by news of a student’s President Trump Halloween scarecrow decoration erected at a local elementary school.
News of the anti-Trump display broke on the Santa Clarita Community Watchdog Group’s Facebook page last Saturday with many parents and commenters expressing displeasure that such a display would be acceptable at an elementary school.
“No matter what your political affiliation is, this was 100% inappropriate for elementary students to see at Santa Clarita Elementary today!! What was this teacher thinking ‘Mrs. Clark’ from room #22 subjecting Santa Clarita children to such hate & her political views… standby more to come at the District,” page member Eileen Sutton wrote.
Accompanying her Facebook post was a photo of the scarecrow showing a large stick figure featuring a large photo of the president yelling.
The controversy brought the president of the school’s Parent-Teacher Club, Sara Barsh, to apologize for the scarecrow. “I apologize if this is offensive. I do not believe it is the student’s intention to be political,” she said.
One commenter wrote, “Ouch. Wrong wrong. Kids don’t need to be subject to this. No matter what these people think of our President, he IS our President and deserves respect for the position. It’s not the educator’s position to encourage our children to disrespect anyone.”
Another wrote, “To suggest this is not an issue is turning a blind eye to the children being unfairly exposed to the degradation of the President of The United States and the exposure of the children to hatred.”
A parent told CBS Los Angeles, “We need to have respect for our president and to allow young children to depict the president in that manner is disrespectful.”
Others were less offended, and some parents of the school’s children defended both the school and the teacher.
“Even though I personally find it quite childish, this is protected by the First Amendment. However, it’ll be interesting to see how the school deals with it. Most schools have a policy in place that either allows or disallows political expression. This is the school’s problem, not anybody else’s is [sic] on this post,” a commenter said:
PTA chief Barsh added, “I think it would have been different if there was a pic of ALL the scarecrows so everyone could see the creativity rather than singling out one scarecrow that (by the way), the student’s are so proud of.”
School district officials say they are investigating the incident.
“At this point, we’re still investigating,” Lee Morrell, a spokesman for the district, told KHTS AM 1220. “We should have a better idea in the morning.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.