Parents complain after childcare center hires a ‘too dark’ black woman
Whitehall, Pennsylvania police are investigating a racist letter that was sent to a daycare center. The note has led to staff members taking extra security precautions all week.
Dominique McKelley, owner of Bridge 2 Creative Learning Center reported a letter addressed to her that had no return address.
In the envelope were two identical letters, one was addressed to her and the other to a co-worker. They urged the center to fire one of their staff because her skin is too dark.
Workers at the daycare posted the letter to social media and it has gone viral.
“This is not OK,” McKelley said, her voice filled with emotion. “It’s gone too far — this hatred. Now you’re targeting a daycare center?”
Police Chief Michael Marks said that in his 20 years on the force he has never seen a letter quite that offensive.
“It’s disturbing. This is not something you want to see in your community,” he said. “This is something we as a police department are going to take very seriously.”
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While it is possible the letter could lead to harassment and ethnic intimidation charges, police feel it could be hard to track down the sender.
McKelley had to tell her staff about the letter even though she was hesitant to hurt the targeted woman’s feelings.
“I didn’t want her to have to read something like this,” she said.
McKelley got emotional recounting the experience.
“She started crying. She looked scared,” she said. “She said she was going to quit. But I convinced her to stay. This has gotten everyone here so fired up.
“To see that look on her face when she read it … it just gets to you.”
In the letter, the author claimed to be a parent and threatened to pull their child out of the daycare for no other reason than the worker’s skin was too dark.
