What in the name of Yankee Doodle is wrong with Cherry Hill High School East in New Jersey?
The principal of the taxpayer-funded school has apologized for including the words “party like it’s 1776” on tickets for the upcoming senior prom.
“I am writing to apologize for the hurt feelings this reference caused for members of our school family,” Principal Dennis Perry wrote in a letter to the community. “It was insensitive and irresponsible not to appreciate that not all communities can celebrate what life was like in 1776.”
Yes, good readers. It seems a group of minority students were triggered by a reference to the founding of our great nation.
“I especially apologize to our African American students who I have let down by not initially recognizing the inappropriateness of this wording,” the grownup in charge of the school wrote in his apology.
Principal Perry sounds like a full-blown Yankee Doodle Dingbat.
The controversy even riled up the local community – with all sorts of folks taking great umbrage over the ticket verbiage.
“For some Americans, 1776 was not a good time,” Danny Elmore, of the Cherry Hill African American Civic Association, told the Courier-Post.
Moving forward the school vowed to right this incredibly insensitive wrong by adding more diversity to their planning committees.
So if commemorating 1776 is racist, will the Cherry Hill theatre club be permitted to stage a production of “Hamilton”?
I can only imagine the microaggressions that a Broadway musical celebrating the birth of our nation would trigger.
Sweet mercy, America.
Please read this letter of apology to the East Community. pic.twitter.com/BnokMF0n9Q
— Dr. Dennis Perry (@drperryateast) May 18, 2018