Happy update on the NY elementary kids forced to sit out the school carnival due to poverty

Come back, kids!

Come back, kids!

Yesterday we shared the disheartening story of a principal at PS 120 in Queens, New York that made 100 children sit in a dark auditorium while their classmates frolicked just outside at a school carnival. All because they couldn't come up with the $10 carnival fee and despite the fact the school made an alleged $2,000-$3,000 profit on the carnival.

Well, the owner of the company that staged the carnival says he's not having it:

The carnival company hired for a Queens elementary school’s end-of-year festival that only paying students could attend is now offering to throw a free bash for the banned kids.

“I’m in the business for over 25 years and always put kids first,” said Gary Pincus, president of Send in the Clowns Entertainment. “Therefore, I would love to do a free carnival for all the kids that weren’t permitted to attend.”

Furthermore, he wants to hold it ASAP:

“If I had known that there were kids not allowed to attend the carnival, I would have paid for them,” he said, explaining that school carnivals are supposed to be for “all the children as a reward for getting through the school year.”

Let's hope Principal Joan Monroe takes him up and does the right thing for these kids. It won't be the same, but it'll be better than banishing and shaming them for not having $10.

Special thanks to Daily Kos user ChicagoCharles for alerting me to the message from Gary Pincus.