A primary school in America has come under fire for encouraging children as young as five to dress as the opposite sex for the day, during a week of special events.
Parents have criticised the elementary school in Wisconsin, and some kept their children at home for the day.
One mother described the event as “ridiculous” and “creepy” but the school’s principal said it was meant to be fun.
Complaints
Officials at Tippecanoe School for Arts and Humanities changed the name of the voluntary event from “Gender Bender Day” to “Switch It Up Day” following complaints to the Principal.
Sam Ward, who has a child at the school, said: “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.”
Deidri Hernandez, who has a seven-year-old son at the school, is concerned that the motivation behind the day is to promote the acceptance of homosexuality to very young children.
Transgender
She said: “They might as well call it ‘Transgender Day'”.
A member of the school board rejected parents’ criticism, accusing parents of using their own children for “political purposes”.
Terence Falk said: “This is nothing new. I don’t think the kids were thinking about sexual orientation.”
Voluntary
Tony Tagliavia, a spokesman for Milwaukee Public Schools, said: “This was an idea created by students as one in a series of school spirit days. As with other days, participation was voluntary.”
The Principal said the event was a suggestion from students in the school council and was only meant to be fun.