A Morris County elementary school principal’s decision to dress as President Donald Trump last week has thrown the district into turmoil, spawning social media shouting matches and furious community debate.
In a letter to the Catherine A. Dwyer Elementary School community in Rockaway Township on Monday, Principal Michael McGovern said he didn’t intend to make a political statement by donning a “Make America Great Again” hat and long red tie for a school spirit day.
“My focus has always been, and will continue to be, putting children first — a fact well known to my staff and the families I serve,” he wrote.
But the problem, according to some parents, is bigger than just a costume.
Rockaway Township has a large immigrant community. Dwyer Elementary is about 33% Hispanic, according to the latest state figures.
“I am not triggered by the hat,” Pilar Martis, a mother of three children in the district, told NJ Advance Media. “I am triggered by the message of ‘Make America Great Again.’”
The president’s campaign slogan can’t be separated from Trump’s often inflammatory rhetoric, which is often directed toward minority communities, Martis said.
“That red hat has more than one meaning,” she said, adding that school administrators have a duty to make their students feel safe.
McGovern did not respond to multiple requests to comment on Friday.
In a letter issued last week, Rockaway Township Superintendent Richard Corbett said the matter would be dealt with behind closed doors.
“We understand that the choice of costume has raised strong feelings, and will be addressing the issue internally,” he said. “A public forum is not the proper medium to address the situation.”
In a shorter follow-up note to “parents and friends” of the district this week, Corbett said he was “grateful” for the emails he’d since received, but reiterated that his previous letter would be his only word on the matter.
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Corbett shared his previous statement.
A photograph of McGovern standing in a hallway and flashing two thumbs-up in the Trump outfit quickly made the rounds among Dwyer parents last week. Then it spilled over into private Facebook groups for the wider Rockaway Township area.
While some raised concerns about bringing any kind of politics into schools, others didn’t see the problem.
“How is it disrespectful to anyone to dress as a sitting President?” one resident asked in a local Facebook group.
“If someone dressed in a suit with some ice cream last year no one would have said anything,” the resident continued, an apparent reference to former President Joe Biden, who has been outspoken about his love for the treat.
“We don’t really know that,” another resident shot back in the thread, “because no one had the poor judgment to bring those political beliefs into the schools. I don’t care who you support; leave it at home.”
McGovern wore the MAGA hat, red tie and suit for Dwyer Elementary’s “Celebrity Day,” but he said in his letter to the community that the Trump costume was not his first choice.
“What transpired during Celebrity Day stemmed from student interaction throughout the day,“ he wrote. ”My original attire reflected my support for the New York Rangers, and my second change was made in response to the enthusiasm and engagement of our students.”
McGovern did not specify why he had multiple outfits or what students did to make him change into the Trump costume.
The principal’s letter did little to quell online complaints.
“He sent out a non-apology for something that egregious,” said April Royal, the chairwoman of the Rockaway Township Democratic Committee.
Royal also has three young children who go to school in the district, though none attend Dwyer. She said she was “shocked” and “mortified” by the incident, as well as the response by the district.
“What are the consequences?” she asked. “If there are no consequences, what else can they get away with?”
At a township council meeting on Tuesday, Rockaway Township Mayor Joe Jackson arrived wearing a Mount Hope Fire Company t-shirt. He said it was a “shout-out” and show of support for McGovern, who is also a volunteer firefighter.
“He was, I think, unjustly attacked on social media over the weekend,” Jackson said in video footage of the meeting. “Mike McGovern has been a lifelong servant to this community. He’s the principal of Dwyer school, which is one of the only Blue Ribbon award-winning schools in the state.”
Jackson did not respond to a request for comment on Friday, nor did the district’s board of education.
Dwyer Elementary, one of six schools in the Rockaway Township School District, has 322 students enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to state data.
Dwyer’s student body is 57% white, 33% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 2% Black and nearly 5% two or more races, according to the latest available state data from the 2022-23 school year.
Many families in the township, which flipped for Trump by a margin of less than 500 votes in last year’s presidential election, are immigrants, according to both Royal and Martis.
Martis said she is an American citizen, but her parents arrived in the U.S. as undocumented immigrants from Ecuador. Many of her neighbors' immigration statuses are unclear, she said.
“There are brown and Black families in this community,” she said. “We don’t know what everybody’s status is.”
As for McGovern’s intentions, Martis said, “I think he was trying to be funny — but he should have used common sense.”
Stories by AJ McDougall
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AJ McDougall may be reached at amcdougall@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on X at @oldmcdougall.
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