Enraged Wellesley Parent’s Emails Led to Cancellation of Donald Trump Skit
![Photo via AP](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/AP432352839607.jpg)
Photo via AP
A Wellesley public school canceled a skit in which three students danced to techno music while wearing oversized Donald Trump heads after an enraged parent complained to administrators, according to emails made public this week.
School officials released emails between the district’s superintendent and the principal of Fiske Elementary, after the Wellesley Townsman filed a public records request. Included is the initial complaint from an apoplectic parent, who included caricatures of President Barack Obama and what he or she believed was the Islamic prophet Muhammed for good measure.
“Please grow up and realize that there are many different views and that a talent show ridiculing someone is first not a talent and would have never been tolerated if it was of Obama,” the parent wrote. “May be [sic] next year my kids will dance a hijab on! [sic] What the hell is wrong with you.”
The wordless skit featured three 11-year-old boys, Christian Mattaliano, Marc Maggiacomo, and David Maggiacomo, dancing to Crazy Frog’s “Axel F” while wearing cutouts of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s head.
“My husband is voting for Trump. You should be so lucky to be married to someone as wonderfully Republican as him,” the parent continued. “Can’t believe our tax dollars pay your salaries. You are rather pathetic individuals (really this is my opinion of you) and I will make sure my kids come to school ridiculing Hillary or Obama soon.”
“I hope Trump wins and all the teachers like yourselves get fired because you really shouldn’t be teaching because you can’t do so without injecting your political beliefs,” the parent wrote.
Principal Rachel McGregor contacted Superintendent David Lussier, telling him she had “numerous teachers who are not feeling safe based on some of her comments.”
Another email from the same parent, sent later that afternoon, included a political cartoon depicting a Muslim man named “Abdul” handing a severed cartoonist’s head to a woman dressed in a burqa.
“My boys will be coming dressed as Muhammad and dancing with the Trump act. Where is the line? Who can you ridicule,” the parent wrote. “As long as you allow this then you can allow the Trump mockery. It’s all free speech.”
You can read the parent’s emails below.