Milwaukee school takes heat over ‘gender bender’ switch it up day, boys and girls expected to cross dress
Students at Tippecanoe School have participated in several different theme days during School Spirit Week, but Friday, May 23rd’s theme of Gender Bender Day caused some controversy.
Members of the Student Council decided on day’s theme. It called for boys to dress like girls and girls to dress like boys.
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“I was speechless actually, and I asked a few of the neighbors because I thought I was overreacting, stuff like that, and everybody was speechless,” said one mother, who asked not to be identified.
The mother says she has no problem with teenagers having a fun day of dressing like the opposite sex, but her son is only seven and the theme confused him.
Deidri Hernandez’s seven-year-old son won’t be in school today, after officials at Tippecanoe School for the Arts and Humanities confirmed they’re still holding “Switch It Up Day” – the new name for the event.
Hernandez tells EAGnews that Tippecanoe officials made the name change after she called Principal Jeffrey Krupar to complain.
The Milwaukee mother was not impressed.
“I didn’t have a problem with the title. I had a problem with the activity taking place,” Hernandez says.
She says its “ridiculous” and “creepy” to ask elementary boys to come to school dressed as girls, and vice versa, and predicts that having students dress as “transvestites” will distract from the learning process.
Hernandez knows of at least one other parent who shares her concerns and plans to hold her child out of class, too.
One student’s father, who didn’t want to be identified, says he doesn’t want his son to dress as a girl.
“I think it’s just teaching them the wrong lesson about gender. If you’re a boy, stay a boy. You shouldn’t have something like that at school,” said the father.
School board member Terrence Falk believes those creating a controversy are using the kids for political purposes.
“This is nothing new. I don’t think they kids were thinking about sexual orientation,” said Falk.
