Australian school sorry for Hitler costume prize

[HAMILROCK]

SYDNEY (AFP) - A west Australian school issued an apology to parents Friday after a young boy dressed as Adolf Hitler won a costume parade.

The boy was judged best dressed among his class of nine and 10-years-olds by the principal and other teachers in a book week contest, with a costume featuring the swastika, a famous symbol of Nazi brutality.

But the unnamed Perth Catholic school sent a letter of apology to parents after a number of complaints that commending an outfit of the Nazi dictator was inappropriate.

"It's a one-off thing that in retrospect we'd do differently," the principal, who was not named, told The West Australian newspaper, defending himself by saying Hitler "was a fairly famous person".

"To me it's a mountain out of a molehill," he added.

The letter to parents said future dress-up days would be restricted to characters "appropriate for primary school-aged students" and said care would be taken to ensure students understood the "sensitivities" around certain people.

It follows an outcry in the state earlier this week over a teacher who gave high school students an assignment to plan an extremist attack which could inflict maximum casualties on "unsuspecting" people.

The assignment was quickly withdrawn after an angry backlash from parents at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School, and the teacher reprimanded for her insensitivity.

[Davydave]

They failed to mention that the principal looked like Herman Goering

[be47320]

hamilrock....the skippy references are coming...tread lightly

[ZoomVT]

Be beat me to it. Between him and tribal they have skippy covered.

[LordCC]

Maybe he was a fan of Hitler, and if so, shouldnt that be more of a wonderment!