PHOENIX (KNXV/CNN) – Some controversial costumes are casting a shadow on a high school theater performance in Arizona.
Actors donned Ku Klux Klan robes during a scene, and the audience was caught off guard by their appearance.
It happened during a performance of the play “The Foreigner” on Friday, Dec. 7, which students at ASU Preparatory Academy attended.
"Three students dressed as the KKK walked down the middle of the assembly as part of a play,” said one ASU parent, whose daughter asked him to remain anonymous. “Disgusted. It’s wrong in any way, shape or form. There is no justification for it.”
He’s upset students and parents weren’t alerted ahead of time.
"At least inform the parents. Give us the ability to make that decision,” he said. “The KKK walked into my kid’s school Friday and I didn't get to stop it."
The popular play is a comedy in which the Klansmen are mocked and driven away. But the play is no stranger to controversy at high schools.
A Minnesota school canceled a production of it last year after their costumes went viral.
A spokesperson for ASU said, in part: “We apologize if anyone was caught by surprise with the appearance of these characters. We are confident that a fair reading of the text of the play, and a fair interpretation of the intentions of students who performed it, reveals no endorsement of bigotry.”
The anonymous father still believes it should have never happened in the first place.
"We can talk about racial prejudice, we can talk about the insensitivity,” he said. “But to have our children put on the robes and assume the characters, it's wrong."
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