Tennessee School Holds ‘Villain Day’ Costume Event, Kids Show Up Dressed As Hitler, Slave Master

School officials at a Tennessee high are regretting their decision to hold a “Villain Day” costume event, after some kids showed up dressed as Hitler, a slave master, and other questionable costume choices.

As WREG (Memphis) reports, Bartlett High School in suburban Memphis did what just about every other high school in America does and hosted a week of fun events in the days leading up to Homecoming. Wednesday was “Villain Day.” The thinking was that the kids would dress up like their favorite villains from comic books or movies.

As anyone who has ever spent much time around teens can tell you, you should never underestimate the tendency of teenagers to, when given an inch, take a mile.

Bartlett High officials started getting phone calls from outraged parents on Thursday after pictures of some of the costumes began hitting social media. One kid was dressed as Hitler. Another was dressed as a slave master (remember, Tennessee has an uncomfortable history with slavery). One student – who was actually asked to change clothes because he or she was being a “distraction to the learning environment” – was dressed as a police officer.

Bartlett… do something right lol https://t.co/IMPTNDLWCy

— Jake Milligan (@jakelmilligan) September 24, 2016

Parents Dan Talley and Sherita Miller both called WREG to express their outrage about the photo of a kid dressed as Hitler, who was standing in front of the school and saluting. Talley found if offensive.

“The kid dressed in the Hitler, to me that is just totally out of line for this day and age and for everything that is happening. It offends a large group of people.”

Miller said that when she tried to express her concerns to school officials, she was given unacceptable excuses.

“They say they didn’t see it, whether they saw it or not, we saw it, and that’s a problem. Those pictures were taken at the school not off of school grounds.”

In fact, in a statement to the media, Bartlett officials did say that they never saw any offensive costumes, nor did they receive any complaints from staff or other students. They also said that the classrooms and hallways were “heavily monitored” throughout the day. Officials asked that any students who have concerns about the costumes call the school.

On WREG‘s Facebook page, the costumes are generating some rather spirited debate, with the majority of the commenters angry that the kids – and by extension, their parents – took what was supposed to be a fun event and turned it into something ugly.

One user notes that the school could have avoided this whole mess if they had just been a bit more specific and specified that it was Comic Book Villain Day or Disney Villain Day.

“Don’t call it Villain Day and expect teenagers to not dress up as real life Villains to them.”

Other users were upset at the fact that one teenager dressed as a police officer on Villain Day. But user Destini Young finds it hypocritical that users would focus on that while a slave master and a Hitler showed up to school that day.

“A slavemaster costume and Hitler walked around but y’all complaint is about the cop costume?”

And one user, Chasity Baker, said she is German and didn’t find the Hitler costume inappropriate at all.

“He WAS a villain, and one of the most notorious!”

Hopefully, Bartlett High School officials learned a lesson this week: when you tell teenagers to wear costumes, be specific and set firm guidelines, else you might wind up with an embarrassing situation on your hands.

[Featured Image by Elnur/Shutterstock]