ST. CLOUD, Fla. (WSVN) — A Central Florida preschool is facing criticism regarding a controversial lesson that involved toddlers reenacting the arrest of a civil rights icon.
The class at the Building Brains Academy in St. Cloud was learning about the legacy of Rosa Parks, but the parents of a young girl said the school used an offensive way to teach this lesson.
The pictures shared in a school parent group — and shared by the NAACP — showed a 2-year-old girl with her hands behind her back and hand-printed by another student while learning about Parks.
A spokesperson for the preschool said this a spontaneous activity, but the girl’s family said everything about the reenactment is inappropriate.
“Her hands [were] restrained behind her back as if she was being taken into custody, and then the next image was her hands being placed on a table as of she was being booked,” said Bri, the child’s mother. “The look on her face alone, it was horrific.”
The girl was representing Parks in the class reenactment was Black, and the boy wearing a reflective vest representing police was white.
The reenactment was held Dec. 1st, the same day in 1955 that Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
That incident sparked a year-long bus boycott.
The NAACP is demanding an investigation into the reenactment. The civil rights organization sent letters to the Florida Department of Children and Families and the preschool about the incident they called “racist.”
Back in May, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida, saying Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policy changes in public education erase Black history.
A spokesperson for Building Brains Academy released a statement to 7News on Wednesday saying the school repeatedly apologized to the family.
The statement reads in part, “Unfortunately, photographs shared of the activity do not offer a complete or accurate representation of the full lesson about the importance of equal rights, nor do they make it clear that at no time were restraints of any kind used on any student.”
The statement goes on to read, “We deeply regret the assumption that our teachers, our leadership or our administration would in any way choose to make a child feel uncomfortable or negatively singled out.”
The parents of the child said that lesson changed their little girl.
“As we were approaching the school where the incident happened, she got very quiet and very, very reserved,” said the child’s father, “but in time we passed it. We had our daughter back, and she was bubbly.”
The spokesperson for the preschool said a new policy will require teachers to get approval from the administration for any change to the approved curriculum, and they will continue to celebrate equality and diversity.
The child’s parents have pulled her from the program.
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