Portland fifth-grader's Obama mask yanked from talent show

PORTLAND — A fifth-grade fan of the president can't wear a Barack Obama mask in a school talent show, his principal says.

The fifth-grader, crestfallen, says his routine makes no sense without the mask, so he'll go roller-skating instead of being in the show.

Dru Lechert-Kelly, 11, is a fifth-grader at Llewellyn Elementary School in Portland who was adopted at age 1 from a Romanian orphanage.

He hoped to dress presidentially and dance to a YouTube parody that features an Obama look-alike and a rap called "I Can Do Whatever I Like."

He rehearsed the skit Thursday. The Oregonian newspaper reported that he wore a navy-blue suit, a white shirt, a red tie, black shoes and an Obama mask purchased at a costume shop — one like Obama himself once donned for a "Saturday Night Live" sketch.

The choreographed routine ended with Dru on the floor in the splits. The newspaper reported that students and teachers in the crowd went wild. But some adults objected.

"I talked to the parents who are coordinating the talent show, and they feel it's inappropriate and potentially offensive," principal Steve Powell said.

He declined to tell the newspaper specifically why it might be offensive, but one of Dru's parents, a gay couple, suggested race.

"I understand the history of blackface and how African Americans were caricatured by it," said Scott Lechert. "However, we now have a popular biracial president who is admired by white and nonwhite people. At what point will it become OK for an 11-year-old admirer to dress up as the president without fear of offending someone?"

Lechert said he and his partner, Paul Kelly, helped the boy design props — including a presidential seal affixed to the front of a desk with duct tape. And they advised him to "have lots of bop" and "use your shoulders" in the routine.

"We are white, but we're a minority class," Kelly said. "We have some insight into this process of what is and what isn't offensive. There was obviously no intent to harm here or really any possibility of offending anyone."

Their son said he didn't think performing without the mask was an option.

"If I don't have the mask," he said, "it's just some kid up there dancing around."