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A Montreal mother is outraged after Grade 3 teachers wore native costumes in an Outremont schoolyard Monday, handing out indigenous headdresses to students.

The incident took place on the first day of school at École Lajoie, where the same mother complained two years ago about a plan to put on a school play with students in blackface dancing around a Santa who had contracted Ebola in Africa.

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Jennifer Dorner, who has two children at the school and posted a photo of one of the teachers on Facebook, said she was shocked when she saw the teachers in the schoolyard.

“They were handing out little headdresses for the children to wear, with feathers,” she told the Montreal Gazette.

Dorner’s niece was handed one of the headdresses and “didn’t know what to do. She wanted to rip it up. She was upset and sad and this really set a sad tone to the first day. It was heartbreaking.”

“We have been teaching our children that costumes like that are inappropriate,” Dorner said. “The other kids in the class were all wearing them.