Kids are going back to school and that means beginning of the year parades!
Here’s a tip: When you get kids to march, don’t dress them up like ISIS. It’s… weird. And that’s what one kindergarten did in Indonesia:
Apakah negeri ini kekurangan busana adat yang bisa ditampilkan dalam karnaval Agustus ini?
Kok sampai-sampai hal beginian ditampilan, dan mengeksploitasi anak-anak.#ProbolinggoPagiIni pic.twitter.com/dlJQ3YPqhx
— al (@rasjogja) August 18, 2018
The group of about 15 students were taking part in a parade for Indonesia’s independence day last Friday near the country’s second-biggest city Surabaya.
The Kartika kindergarten, which is located inside a military complex in Probolinggo town, said the costumes were resurrected from storage to save parents the cost of buying new ones.
It denied that the gun replicas and full-body veils promoted extremism.
“I never meant to teach violence to my students,” said school principal Suhartatik, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“We only used the props that we already had to cut costs for parents. I deeply apologise.”
How can anyone possible see full-body veils and cutouts of guns and think, “Yep, everyone’s gonna love this! No one will ever compare these kids to a terrorist group”? And why did they already have these props?! What sort of messed up school plays do they perform at this school?!
Another view of the parade shows the kids in context… and it’s still bizarre and creepy:
On Independence Day yesterday, a video of a schoolboy climbing a flagpole in west Timor went viral on Indonesian social media. Today another video went viral: kindergarteners in black niqab carrying guns joined Independence Day carnival in Probolinggo, East Java #17an #RI73 pic.twitter.com/yN9tdyZwz5
— Yenni Kwok (@yennikwok) August 18, 2018
How are all those spectators just walking around like they’re not near a group of kids dressed as terrorists?
The principal said the costumes and props were previously used to teach students about the Prophet Muhammad… which is somewhat surprising given that those weapons were most definitely not around in the 6th and 7th centuries.
Some teachers freak out when they screw something up on the first day of classes because they worry it sets a bad tone for the rest of the school year. Those teachers should consider themselves lucky. At least they didn’t accidentally dress up a bunch of kids to look like ISIS for a celebratory parade.
(Thanks to Terry for the link)