Two longstanding traditions have been dropped from this year’s County Fair: the dunk tank and the petting zoo.

Sixth grade English teacher George Drury alerted the two sophomore grade heads, Andy Bigelow and Vickie Lee, to the racial history of dunk tanks, and Upper School history teacher Dan Greenstone referred them to an article on the poor treatment of animals in petting zoos.  After consulting with Vice Principal and Interim Upper School Head Ruth Jurgensen, Bigelow and Lee made the decision.  

The removal of the petting zoo was announced in an email sent by Bigelow and Lee on June 29. With the email they attached an article from the Animal Research Coalition that voiced concerns over animal rights issues regarding petting zoos, including lack of “shelter from wind and sun” and limited access to fresh water and food, as well as “transportation, overcrowding, inadequate bedding, and lack of veterinary care.”

The article concludes that petting zoos are not truly an educational experience. Caging, which often leads to boredom and disorientation for the animals, doesn’t give children a true understanding of wildlife or how animals interact with their natural environments.

The petting zoo has been replaced with more pet-friendly activities. According to Lee, the Lincoln Park Zoo will staff a booth with an educational activity, Canine Therapy Corps will bring therapy dogs for students to interact with, as they did for the Upper School for final exams last year, and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum will feature a snake and a turtle to the fair.

Bigelow and Lee sent another email on July 11 to announce the removal of the dunk tank, with another attached article, this one describing the activity’s racial history.

Referencing Denis Mercier’s essay on 19th and 20th century fairground attractions that used African Americans as the source of sport, the article makes the case against dunk tanks.

Mercier said, “The target games found in traveling carnival shows, seashore resorts and fairgrounds throughout the nation were among the most racially aggressive of all popular games.”  One popular carnival game throughout the late 19th century and until the mid 1940s had contestants try to hit an African-American with a ball in order to win a prize. A water tank was later added, and the game evolved into the modern version of the dunk tank.

According to Lee, the gradeheads researched this history extensively and concluded that the racial history rendered the activity inappropriate for Parker’s County Fair, which they meant to be positive and inclusive.

“Traditions are not always meant to remain if the time comes for some new perspectives on what we take for granted each day,” Bigelow said. “The decisions to change the dunk tank and petting zoo are what makes us a progressive school–moving forward and making sound decisions and creating an inclusive environment.”

So far the community response has been mostly positive, according to Lee. “I agree with the decision to get rid of the petting zoo over animal treatment problems,” senior Rafi Derringer said, “and I wasn’t even aware of the horrible history behind the dunk tank, so I think it’s smart that they looked into that and made that decision.”

Others, though, aren’t sure that removing these two activities is necessarily the right decision. “Even though it has had a racist history, Parker doesn’t need to remove the dunk tank because as a school we aren’t acting on its racist history,” senior Leigh Logan said. “In regards to the petting zoo, I think that we should keep it if we are able to get the animals from a place that guarantees that the animals are treated humanely.”

“We love our traditions at Parker,” Bigelow said, “but I admire our willingness to rethink what we do each day, and here is a fine case where we’ve revisited our traditions and made the necessary changes.”