Barney vilified at Xmas event

Jaylynn Verdin was looking forward all week to the Lockport Christmas parade Saturday, where she would dress up as Barney the dinosaur and wave to children along the route.

But the 10-year-old Lockport Elementary student ended up in tears due to foul language and taunts directed toward her character along the parade route.

A compass – one of the parade throws – was thrown at the float at one point, striking her mother, who was costumed as Hello Kitty, in the back.

“I wanted to say leave me alone or stop,” said Jaylynn, who, despite the abuse, is willing to don the costume again next year if she is asked to. “I believe that I shouldn’t let other people bring down the parade and keep me from doing what I want to do.”

Jaylynn’s relatives said they are shocked that people could be so mean at a Christmas parade.

“All throughout the parade she was hearing things,” said the girl’s mother, Brooke Verdin. “They were shouting ‘I hate you Barney’

and ‘Barney is gay’ and it got to the point where at the end, she was bawling her eyes out.”

Jaylynn told her mother that if one more insult was hurled she would stop her performance, and take off the fuzzy purple costume of which she had been so proud.

Then a young man in his teens approached the float, Verdin said, singing a song about killing Barney with a baseball bat. As promised, Jaylynn then removed the massive costume head.

“She had to go through the pain and hurt of hearing these things and wondering what she did to deserve that abuse,” Verdin said, then directing a message to the offenders. “Thank you for ruining the one thing she counted down the days to.”

Verdin’s brother, Drake Guidry, a 24-year-old petroleum plant worker, was on the float dressed as Diego Marquez, a cartoon character, and another relative was dressed as his animated companion, Dora the Explorer.

Guidry said he stared down a man who had uttered obscenities at his niece and thrown the compass at his sister.

“I wanted to get off the float and confront him but there were kids right there and I didn’t want to get out of character,” Guidry said. “I was shaking, my adrenaline was kicking in. He was a big guy with a beard and short hair, a big-boned white guy. He was holding a 24-ounce beer and he had kids with him.”

Lockport Police Chief Warren Vedros said he was told about the incidents but that, so far, no information relating to potential law enforcement action has emerged.

“By the time it was reported to us everybody had left the area,” said Vedros, who has not opened an official investigation but is following up. “We don’t have a description. It’s an unfortunate situation of somebody who is not from here and came to see the parade. That’s the only incident in 24 years of parading, and it is unfortunate. I know it is devastating to the little girl but, unfortunately, in today’s society, some people have no respect for themselves or others. Hopefully the person that did that will come forward and apologize. It is unfortunate and sad.”

Jaylynn Verdin is all smiles prior to Saturday’s Lockport Christmas parade in her Barney costume. The smiles turned to tears when spectators cursed her character.

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Brooke Verdin (left), dressed as Hello Kitty and her daughter, Jaylynn Verdin, as Barney, prior to the Saturday Lockport Christmas parade.

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