A new kind of caroling

We understand that some parents of elementary school-aged children in Boston are upset about new school bell times planned for next year. They’ve made their feelings known to Superintendent Tommy Chang, the School Committee — and many showed up for a public meeting last week at which they bemoaned, for hours on end, the impact of earlier start times on family life.

But even in this new era of political activism we’d argue that showing up at a Christmas tree lighting, where Santa Claus is handing out toys to neighborhood kids, to demand changes from City Hall is a bit, well, grinchy.

We get the point — parents are trying to pressure Mayor Marty Walsh, who was in West Roxbury Sunday to flip the switch on the festive fir. But they mostly succeeded in ticking him off.

“It’s a Christmas-tree lighting,” Walsh said Sunday. “It’s not the appropriate place for it.”

Ahead of the protest, in a post on the Smart Start BPS Facebook page, one member of the group even worried that “this might overshadow the joy and magic of the moment for the kids.”

And this is meant to be all about the kids.

Isn’t it?

Of course politicians don’t get to choose when they’ll have to confront the anger of their constituents. But prior to Sunday the school department had already signaled it is open to further discussions about the 2018 plan (that’s risky, in our view; school officials have analyzed this plan for 18 months and ought to stick to it). Walsh even said Sunday “everything is on the table.” More community meetings are planned.

So the Christmas tree protest was, quite simply, overkill. The fact that the group is planning another one for Walsh’s inauguration Jan. 1, before they know whether the school department will make changes, suggests they’re as fired up about the activism itself as they are the outcome.