11-Yr-Olds' 'Dancing Trumps' Routine Banned From Talent Show, One Parent 'Offended'

The wordless, two-minute act drew at least one complaint to the principal. And a few hours before the evening performance, the boys were given an ultimatum: Ditch the masks, or sit out the show. The Bobblehead Boys, as they’d come to be known, were no more.

“The bobblehead is the act,” said Maryellen Maggiacomo, whose twin boys, Marc and David, are two-thirds of the trio. No Trump head, no show.

For the boys, it was confusing and upsetting, said Laurie Mattaliano, whose son Christian completed the trio. “They assume they did something wrong.”

And for the adults, the notion that someone would find offense in the benign gyrations of three fifth-graders is evidence that this overheated election cycle has made America grate on people’s nerves.

“No words were spoken. It’s just pop culture. The skit took no stance in support or defamation,” Mattaliano said. And both mothers said the nature of the complaint — whether it had come from someone offended on behalf of Trump or by him — was not made clear to them.

And so a dance act featuring the face of a presidential candidate who decries political correctness in all its forms was silenced so as not to offend anyone.

David Lussier, the Wellesley school superintendent, declined to say who had complained or why.

“I think it’s so important for us to be seen as nonpartisan in a highly charged election environment,” Lussier said. And though staff vetted the performances beforehand, he said a more thorough review would have weeded out the dancing Trumps and another skit that featured a Trump-Marco Rubio dance-off before they ever made it to the stage.

“We wanted to make sure that nothing we are doing would be perceived as biased in some way,” Lussier said. “You’re not seeing Democratic candidates certainly.”