Dad Kicked Off School Grounds for Wearing Superhero Costume
Lennon Parker was kicked off his son’s school grounds for showing up dressed in full Spiderman costume, including a mask. (Photo: Lennon Parker)
A dad of a kindergarten student was asked to leave school grounds on Tuesday because he showed up to school dressed as Spiderman, a costume he wore in protest after the school didn’t allow him to read to his son’s class dressed as the superhero.
Lennon Parker, whose son Grant is a kindergarten student at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School in Little Rock, Ark., was told that because his identity was concealed in his costume, he was considered a security threat. “I was standing in the parking lot, a public space, and there were kids waving at me and I was waving at them,” Parker tells Yahoo Parenting. “I was just waiting, not interrupting any studies, and the kids and parents were loving it. But then the principal came out and said ‘I’m asking you to leave, the way you are a dressed is a threat to our students.’ She locked the school down.”
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Parker wore the costume in protest after his son’s teacher wouldn’t allow him to come to class dressed as Spiderman and read to the students. “It’s the end of the school year. Testing is complete but it’s before kindergarten graduation, so it’s a slow time,” Parker says. “My son knows I do some charity events dressed as superheroes – I visit sick kids and children’s shelters – and he asked if I would come to his school in costume.”
So Parker sent a letter to Grant’s teacher last week asking permission. “I said ‘Grant would like me to come as a superhero if you don’t mind. Can you let me know what day and time is best for you?’” he says. “She sent a letter back that just said ‘thanks but superheroes are not part of the curriculum.’ It was very short and kind of rude.”
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Lennon Parker’s son Grant was devastated when his kindergarten teacher sent home a letter saying he would not be allowed to read to his son’s class dressed as Spiderman. (Photo: Lennon Parker)
Grant was devastated, Parker says. “He was just crying. I’ve never seen him this torn up.” Parker says he was especially confused because the class has previously enjoyed events that were not curriculum-based. “This school year, I spent a lot of money on field trips that were not educational,” he says. “I paid $15 for Grant to see Disney on Ice, plus they asked for $10 in concession money. They also went to [movie] comedies, which I had to pay $13 or $14 each for.”
Parker says he spoke to the principal about the issue, and was told that Disney characters are fairy tales, which are educational, but superheroes are violent. “I said, ‘Superheroes save people, they are like police. Do we want our kids to be scared of the police?’”
Deborah Roush, executive director of communications for Pulaski County Special School District, which includes Clinton Elementary, tells Yahoo Parenting that the incident was a misunderstanding. “Mr. Parker had an interested in coming to his son’s class dressed as spiderman – it was originally not to read to the students, his son just wanted him to come to the school dressed as spiderman,” Roush tells Yahoo Parenting. “Teachers have lesson plans and we have to plan what those lessons are in advance and that wasn’t included in the next couple of weeks. We have parents with a variety of requests that want to come in – parents reach out constantly because they have their interests they want to share with the students. In this case Mr. Parker has a passion for superheroes. We have parents who have passions for mixed martial arts or animals or music or art. We can’t accommodate it all. This was not an attempt to keep a father from sharing with his son or reading to his class, but we’re on limited time here between now and the end of the year and that is something that would have needed to be planned.”
Since he was never allowed to read to the class, Parker decided to pick Grant up from school on Tuesday dressed as Spiderman, which is when he was kicked off the school grounds. “There was no threat going on, I had no weapons, and the principal was able to identify me through the eye holes in my mask,” he says. “All this could have been avoided if they gave me 15 minutes to read a book, tell the kids to listen to their teachers and get good grades, and be good to one another.”
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