A Colorado high school district has placed a teacher on administrative leave after parents discovered that he allowed students to smack a piñata bearing an image of President Donald Trump.
Johnstown Milliken School District Superintendent Martin Foster said it happened on the campus of Roosevelt High School in Johnstown, Colorado, during a Spanish class’ Cinco de Mayo celebration Friday, KCNC-TV reported.
Students posted videos and photos of the Trump-bashing event to Snapchat, where Roosevelt High parent Lesley Hollywood discovered the event.
“It is disturbing that this would be happening in a school setting,” she told the local news outlet. “Why divide people? Why do this? There are so many other ways we can address politics in schools.”
“Political discourse right now, in this country, is already so strained and so angry,” she said.
Hollywood told KCNC that, though she did not vote for Trump, she found the disrespect displayed toward the president concerning.
“I wouldn’t have cared if it was [former President Barack] Obama’s face on that piñata, or if it had been Hillary Clinton’s face,” she said. “It doesn’t matter. This is not how we should be teaching our children politics in this country.”
Foster said the incident involving the unnamed teacher is being investigated, KCNC reported. The superintendent described the anti-Trump Cinco de Mayo celebration as “incredibly disrespectful act that does not reflect the values of Roosevelt High School or the district.”
Hollywood said it is valuable for the school to engage in political dialogue, but she said they must be held in a “respectful manner.”
“I just didn’t feel this was very respectful,” the parent concluded.
