Mother of BC boy who wore Hitler costume defends his actions

The mother of the Vancouver teenager who garnered backlash for dressing up as Hitler on Halloween has come out in defence of her son's decision to wear the costume."It’s Halloween; we need to relax. Isn’t Halloween supposed to be who’s the scariest?" said the 14-year-old's mother, Athena Leilani, in an interview with CityNews."My son is very outspoken; he’s been like that since he was young...He has no filter. He does things because he wants to do them."The teenager sparked online debate about freedom of expression when images and videos of his costume were circulated around social media.The boy was seen in and around Langley on Halloween night wearing a tan coat with a swasitika armband around the arm and sporting a toothbrush moustache with his hair slicked to the side.Videos were taken showing the boy performing a Nazi salute while other teenagers laughed and cheered..The costume garnered consternation from many online commentators as well as those in local Jewish organizations.In an interview with CityNews, Ezra Shanken, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of BC, called the costume "heinous."."Clearly this young man didn’t understand the seriousness of what he was doing," Shanken said."The most haunting thing, to see his friends cheering him on in support of this really heinous costume, was just a validation of what we know and why we need that education." However, many, including the boy's mother, have simply said the costume is an example of freedom of expression."You need to remember that it’s Halloween… It’s Halloween. We very much are good people… this isn’t who we are in our daily lives," Leilani said in a post to social media.She also noted how she and her son are mixed-race, not German, and that "Hitler probably would have killed me back in the day. Let’s be real. He probably would have killed my son. We are mixed.”.Leilani also took shots at those she called "extremely sensitive" and said that individuals who were offended at her son's costume were living "in a bubble."However, Shanken states that he believes people aren't sensitive enough regarding the issue of the Holocaust and the Nazis."Please, don’t tell me I need to be less sensitive about the death of children, the murder of millions, and the one who is responsible for that," he said regarding Leilani's comments.

Mother of BC boy who wore Hitler costume defends his actions

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