Studio Kids Little River blackface controversy explained as Patricia Vitale responds amid negative reviews

Studio Kids Little River preschool has left parents outraged after children were seen with blackface on Black History Month. Since the occurrence, daycare officials have announced that the teacher behind the incident will be given training to ensure that the situation does not arise again. However, parents continue to express their disappointment and have also pulled their children out of that school.

According to CNN, the incident occurred during the first week of Black History Month at Studio Kids. The parents became aware of the incident after a teacher shared pictures of the students on a school messaging app on February 3, 2023.

The caption alongside the picture read- “Black history month.” In the photograph, two students were seen dressed as a police officer and a construction worker. It appeared as if brown paint was applied to their faces as well.

Parents were quick to accuse the teacher of blackface. For the unversed, blackface refers to a non-black person wearing dark makeup to mimic, mock or ridicule the appearance of a black person.

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Parents express outrage over Studio Kids Little River’s racist incident

Courtney Politis, one of the parents who had two kids at the school, told TMZ that she was made aware of the incident by another parent. In an interview with Local10, the Black mother revealed that she immediately texted Paula Vitale, the owner of the educational institution, about the incident.

Vitale reportedly could not understand why the blackface incident was racist and said in a text message-

“I’m sorry? I don’t understand. What is racist? In our school we don’t use this world neither we have this kind of mind.”

In an interview, Politis said:

“You’re a certified, established institutions, you should know better. I mean, ignorance on- about racism in 2023 is no longer ignorant, in my opinion.”

Netizens also flooded the internet with negative reviews of the Studio Kids preschool. Some Google Reviews that were uploaded right after the controversy came to light read:

Netizens leave negative reviews following blackface controversy (Image via Google)

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Patricia Vitale responds to racist incident at Studio Kids

After amassing outrage, Vitale sent a letter to the parents saying that they did not intend “to offend anyone and we’re very sorry about any inconvenience.”

A few days later, she also sent another letter to parents which was more serious in nature and detailed a plan on how such incidents can be avoided in the future. The letter read

“We wanted to let all the parents know that we met on Friday afternoon with all the teachers and staff. We went over several ethical and multicultural education points. I will teach the team a class covering all the necessary topics regarding US history and multicultural education. You may rest assured this will never happen again.”

Politis revealed that as far as she is aware, the teacher behind the specific incident did not face any repercussions. Meanwhile, she has pulled her children out of Studio Kids. It has also been revealed that other parents have also made the same decision.

Since the incident occurred, Vitale said in an interview with the Miami Herald that the problem had been sorted out and that “80% of the families are okay.” The Post revealed that the school is primarily Latino and so was the teacher who was reportedly responsible for the blackface.