I have not been the greatest proponent of religion in the past, particularly when it comes to the separation of Church and State as it relates to keeping religion out of schools. However, this is just down right ridiculous in my eyes and the school officials should admit their racist views instead of hiding behind some vague regulations.
A high school student in Highland Park, IL was pulled out of classes on Halloween for dressing up as Jesus. The students name is Marshon Sanders. He is an African American who is deeply inspired by the life and time of Jesus and wanted to dress as the Savior to school for Halloween.
His mother, Angenetta Frison told Fox 32 News her son was told to change his costume by the school. His Halloween costume include a long, white robe, beautiful red sash, head scarf and a large cross around his neck.
From Fox 32 News: “I wanted to be Jesus because I just got baptized and so I felt like, why not?” Marshon says of his costume choice. “He’s the most influential person in my life.”
He says 15 minutes into his first class he was called to the dean’s office.
“She tells me that, um, my costume was offensive and I was promoting religion, which I wasn’t at all,” he explains.
Shortly before school let out for the day, the high school released a statement, stating that: “We initially were concerned that the costume could be offensive to religious sensibilities. Upon further review, we realized the student did not intend to be offensive.”
Sanders was told he could put the costume back on.
But Frison, who met with school administrators along with her son to discuss the matter, said he chose not to do so.
“They realized they might have been premature and didn’t really assess the situation,” said Frison, who wondered if the image of a black Jesus evoked strong feelings.
“Race is an issue in our country,” she said. “We still struggle with racism. I don’t know if that was a factor, but it may have been. Would a Caucasian student dressed as Jesus have had the same effect?”
The official position of the school is the costume violates the school police for costumes that “could be offensive or perpetuate a stereotype of someone’s culture, gender, sexual orientation, heritage or religion are not permitted.”
According to the schools spokeswoman, Melinda Vajdic, the costume could be seen as poking fun at or perpetuating a “religious sterotype,” which seems to be very inconsistent considering there were other students dressed as Moses, but didn’t have a problem with the school, receive any complaints, or didn’t offend any teachers.
The assumption is the students dressed as Moses were white, thus didn’t cause any problems with their jaded views of religion. However, when the little black boy dressed as Jesus, then there is a major problem with this and he needs to be removed from the costume immediately.
Apparently, two teachers complained about the Jesus costume claiming it was offensive. However, when mother Frison asked what was meant by offensive, there was no answer given.
In my opinion, this is code for we are not going to say it, but black Jesus is offensive to our culture and slanted teachings of the school and educational system. Thus, there is a major problem and needs to be removed.
Not sure where you stand on this issue, but what do you think? Was the actions taken by the school racially motivated or is an image of Jesus in the school just offensive in general and shouldn’t be tolerated?
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