NAACP officials in Iowa are calling on district administrators to fire an elementary school teacher who was photographed in blackface at a Halloween party.
Megan Luloff, a first-grade teacher at Walcott Elementary, was photographed late Friday at a party at the Walcott American Legion as part of a group of people dressed as characters from the 2004 movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” the Quad-City Times reports.
Luloff, who is white, was portraying Lafawnduh, who played the role of Kip Dynamite’s wife. An investigation into the photo is now underway, district officials told the paper.
Betty Andrews, president of the Iowa-Nebraksa NAACP Conference of Branches, said she was shocked when her organization received a copy of the photo.
“I had to check my calendar and my location to know that this happened in 2018,” Andrews told The Post during an interview Thursday. “It was equally disturbing that this is a teacher who is supposed to provide a safe and equitable environment for all students.”
Someone in Luloff’s group also should’ve realized her “serious lapse in judgment” and said something to the teacher, Andrews said.
“It’s incredibly concerning that she was with a group of people who didn’t say, ‘Hey, this is a problem,’” Andrews said. “Clearly someone did find it offensive though because that is why we got the photo in the first place.”
Luloff should now be barred from returning to the classroom, Andrews said.
“I think she should be dismissed,” she said. “Being a teacher, this is a serious lapse in judgment and her presence in a classroom could be detrimental to any student she teaches, particularly African-American students.”
Andrews continued: “I would definitely not want her teaching my children. This makes me wonder what’s in the water, so to speak. What are we teaching in Davenport for this woman to think that this would be OK?”
District spokeswoman Dawn Saul told The Post that two complaints had been received in connection to the photo and that the district became aware of the incident on Monday. Saul could not indicate whether Luloff was teaching at the school on Thursday; Saul said the teacher has been worked at the district for about 9 years.
“The wearing of blackface is never appropriate in any circumstance by any person,” Superintendent Art Tate said in an email to the Quad-City Times. “The issue is under investigation by the district.”
Luloff, whose photo no longer appeared on the school’s website as of Thursday, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The Davenport School District is under state supervision because a disproportionate number of minority students have been identified for special education programs and subjected to disciplinary actions, according to the Quad-City Times.
“The district was very recently made aware of these images of a district employee at a non-school related event, and an internal investigation is currently ongoing,” district officials said in a statement. “The board does not condone the insensitivity these images depict and is very disappointed something like this is now connected to our school community.”