Parents were shocked to learn that teachers at their children’s preschool dressed up the youngsters to honor Black History Month and shared texts unflattering of the institution with CNN.
Questions were raised when stunned parents at a private Miami preschool discovered that a teacher at the school had painted numerous children’s faces with blackface to offer some sort of Black History Month teaching, and offered photographic evidence.
Who is Patricia Vitale?
Patricia Vitale is the owner and director of Studio Kids at Little River, the educational facility where the unfortunate event transpired. On February 3, a teacher posted images of the kids on a school messaging app, which is how the parents learned about the incident. The photo’s caption stated that it was with regard to “Black history month.” Two students were depicted in the photograph, one as a police officer and another as a construction worker. Their features appeared to have also been painted a dark shade of brown.
Parents immediately charged the teacher with using blackface. For those who are unfamiliar, blackface refers to the use of dark makeup by a non-Black person to replicate, insult, or otherwise make fun of the features of a Black person.
One of the parents, Courtney Politis, allegedly texted Vitale about the incident but Vitale could not understand why the makeup event was racist and responded with, “I’m sorry? I don’t understand. What is racist? In our school we don’t use this world neither we have this kind of mind.”
After taking a lot of heat, Vitale wrote a letter to the parents apologizing for any inconvenience and stating that they had not intended to insult anyone. A few days later, she sent another letter to the parents outlining a strategy for preventing similar events in the future.
