Paul Bass Photo
Lux Rosa outside Edgewood School at dismissal time: no Dalmations in sight.
There was a reported sighting of a famous fictional London heiress at a New Haven public school, amid an effort to help students and teachers take a day to chill out during the cruelest academic year in memory.
The sighting of the heiress, Cruella DeVille, was reported at Edgewood School.
On closer inspection, Cruella turned out to be third-grader Lux Rosa (pictured above). Lux did up her hair in Cruella’s two-toned style in order to take part in a “Crazy Hair Day” at her school.
The crazy hair option was offered during a broader “Day of Hope & Healing” taking place at all New Haven Public Schools Friday. The district decided teachers and students needed a wellness break during a year marked by tenser-than-ever hallways and classrooms resulting from the lingering mental-health effects of the two-year-long Covid-19 pandemic.
Teachers districtwide chose from among an option of in-person and online sessions on topics ranging from from mindfulness, yoga, and breathing techniques to neurotrophic art, social justice and advocacy, and music. School also let out early. (Click here to read a previous story detailing the district’s plans and reasoning for the day.)
Edgewood Hair Day participants (from left) Juliana, Principal Perrone, Jámese, Zonasia, and Olive.
Edgewood Principal Nicholas Perrone welcomed the wellness day. He said this has been the most emotionally trying period for teachers and students that he has seen over his 20-year educational career — which began with 9/11.
Edgewood’s Student Senate came up with the idea of the Crazy Hair Day, which was folded into the Hope & Healing activities.
“We have to embrace having fun so we can then get through the hard work” in the classroom, Perrone said.
Lux Rosa was with the program. She has found the continued mask wearing during the pandemic particularly stressful: “It makes it hard to breathe,” she said, and hard to hear what other people are saying.
Lux enjoyed doing yoga in class Friday. She also liked the idea of coming to school with the hair style of “one of my favorite Disney characters” (with whom she shares a fondness for Dalmations), though she had some concern that her classmates wouldn’t get it. That concern evaporated as soon as she walked into class and heard: “Oh my gosh! It’s Cruella!”
Edgewood Asst. Principal Andrea Rizzo with Principal Perrone at Friday half-day dismissal.