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Oct
23
I received this story from a friend who is in education in a Chicago suburb, but used to live in the St. Louis area. She writes, “…it is a public high school in West St. Louis County, which is a relatively affluent suburb of St. Louis.”
Four or five Parkway West Middle School students will be disciplined after administrators found out this week that they designated a “Hit A Jew Day” at the 850-student school.
Principal Linda Lelonek learned Monday evening that her sixth-graders had started an unofficial “spirit week” last week.
The students started with “Hug A Friend Day,” moved to “High Five Day,” “Hit A Tall Person Day,” and then, finally, this Monday, to “Hit A Jew Day,” representatives of the Parkway School District said.
The students generally were not being violent, Lelonek said, but instead “tapping” their peers.
“It was almost like a tag thing,” Lelonek said. “But then it changed.”
She now knows of three or four students who were slapped; none told school officials about being hit. “They said, ‘We were just playing,’” she said.
After school Monday, Lelonek heard from the mother of one of the school’s roughly 35 Jewish students.
Lelonek called an all-sixth-grade assembly first thing Tuesday morning. She said she asked the students if they had heard of each designated “day.” Nearly all raised their hands. Then she asked, “What’s tomorrow going to be? ‘Hit A Principal Day?’”
“You could have heard a pin drop,” she said. “One started saying, ‘Oh, no, Ms. Lelonek.’”
“I said, ‘Don’t say a word.’”
Lelonek said discipline will range from parent conferences to suspensions.
She said the sixth-graders will be studying the Holocaust later this year. “It’s going to be a little more meaningful this year than it’s ever been before,” she said.
I’m speechless. But here’s a post about the incident by someone who grew up in the area. She links to an article that reports,
Educators said they do not believe the incident was done with hatred or prejudice.
I just cannot bring myself to even put into words what I think about that belief of the educators.
From KansasCity.com:
…Karen Aroesty, St. Louis regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said this was more than a case of school bullying.
“You wonder where a bunch of sixth-graders come up with this stuff,” Aroesty said. “The fact is it’s out there. There are probably parents talking, and things they see on the news, and even things they can pick up on the Internet.”
The incident comes at a time of increasing reports of anti-Jewish behavior in the region, Aroesty said. A hate crime is under investigation in another St. Louis suburb, University City, where someone threw eggs at families of Orthodox Jews, she said. She believes the economic crisis may be spurring anti-Jewish sentiments.
“When economic crisis hits, somebody has to be blamed, and historically, Jews get the brunt of this,” Aroesty said.
I have seen several articles about how people are trying to blame Jews for the financial instability we’re all experiencing. Sigh.
Here’s the school’s website.
From the principal’s most recent newsletter:
One of our goals is to promote responsibility, respect, civility and altruism in our Parkway
Schools. These are all character traits supported through our Outdoor Education program and
recognized by our teachers here at West Middle School. I cannot thank you enough for
supporting your children and their education.
From the school’s student handbook, under the section, “Student Responsibilities”:
Students are expected to maintain a positive relationship with
others. This includes:
Treating everyone, peers and adults, with kindness and
concern.
Demonstrating a willingness to help others.
Communicating with appropriate language and
comments.
Safeguarding the well-being of others.
Solving disagreements and conflicts in a positive manner.
Responding in a positive way to adult requests, both in
words and actions.
From the section, “Philosophy of Education and Discipline”:
Parkway’s Code of Conduct
The following commitments are essential to a successful
school program and purposeful life:
Parkway students will pursue academic excellence and
show respect for teaching and learning.
Parkway students will promote responsibility, respect,
civility and altruism.
Parkway students will demonstrate strong character.
Parkway students will accept and honor all people
including those who appear different from themselves.
They will speak out and respond in support of people who
are targets of mockery, intimidation, or harassment.
Parkway students will treat all members
From the “Standard of Conduct” section:
Standard 5. Harassing, Bullying, Threatening, Hazing or
Intimidating Others
A student shall not harass, bully, threaten, haze or intimidate
others for any reason. Threatening others for the purpose of
obtaining money or anything of value (i.e., extortion) is
prohibited.Standard 17. Other Serious Misconduct
Students who engage in other misconduct not expressly
covered by the foregoing standards but which is disruptive to
school operations and detrimental to good order and discipline
may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including
suspension and/or expulsion.
Here’s a chart about the student demographics, with comparisons to MO schools overall. Here’s the Parkway School District website.
Here’s the ADL’s response:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), concerned over reported incidents targeting Jewish students at Parkway West Middle School, will be meeting with school officials on Friday, October 24 to discuss a broad, structured program of anti-bias education and response. A number of Jewish students at the school were hit by fellow classmates last week during what the students called “Hit a Jew Day.”
“It is shocking and distressing to see anti-Semitism acted out by middle school students,” said Karen Aroesty, ADL St. Louis Regional Director. “Our schools and schoolyards are places where respect and understanding should be the norm. We appreciate that administrators are responding swiftly and look forward to working with Parkway West Middle School to turn these incidents into teachable moments that will resonate both in the classroom and at home.”
ADL contacted the school after learning from the family of one of the victims about the different incidents that had occurred. Representatives from the League’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute will participate in the meeting with school officials.
ADL’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE ® Institute has provided anti-bias education and diversity training programs that explore the value of diversity, improve intergroup relations and combat racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice and bigotry. The Institute has been active in the Missouri/Southern Illinois region for more than 20 years.
Of all the articles I could find, none really mention the parents of the kids involved in this “spirit day.”
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:23 pm October 23rd, 2008 in Crime, Education, Religion, Social Issues, Youth
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30 Responses to “St. Louis sixth graders hold “Hit A Jew Day””
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OMG, Jill. I am so worried about our country. What is most troubling to me is the denial of the educators that there is a problem. It is not unusual for adults to be clueluss to what students are doing but when confronted with what is happening to continue to downplay it and to say that they “doubt” that it was serious is inexcuseable in my mind.
Although I think that teachers at times are overwhelmed by the intimidation, bullying, harrassment that goes on among middle school students (for some reason this seems to be a time of great intolerance) when faced with the reality of it, we should deal with it.
unfortunately, I think that the parents will also wonder what the “big deal” is. These kids got these values or should I say lack of values from somewhere.
I am thankful for the principal who stood up and said this will STOP NOW! Spirit weeks are usually sanctioned school events to foster solidarity among the students, teachers, staff and administration are also used as appreciative positive experiences. How sad that we can get so far off track from original intent.
Recently, I blogged about the demonizing of the poor during this economic downturn. We are not a noble people. Sigh!
Here is Gloria’s excellent post about demonizing the poor in this economic downturn. Thank you Gloria for reading, taking the time to comment and for the post. An excerpt:
This is nuts but not surprising. As the “just say no” program has now been proven to increase drug use, I am afraid it will have the reverse outcome and make Jews a bigger target.
I would re-read 1984 to see what’s in store for this once great country.
Oops, I thought this was a school program, never mind…lol.
Ugh. I live in St. Louis, and this, to put it bluntly, disgusts me.
“Educators said they do not believe the incident was done with hatred or prejudice.”
So wrong.
I’m glad you wrote about this, Jill. Knowing Parkway School District and the area like I do, I’m surprised there are only 30 Jewish kids in the school. I always felt there was a relatively large Jewish population in West County (but I lived closer to the city, so I don’t really know for sure…I just know all the Congregations are “out west”).Not that it makes any difference really how many or how few; it is completely reprehensible.
As an educator, I’m also going to hope that the article reporting the educators’ thoughts is basing its opinion on only a few comments. How many educators would seriously say that it wasn’t anti-Semitic? That stuns me…
I also think this is a trickle-down effect in some ways of what is going on in our political climate. When politicians and pundits get away with labeling one religious group as “terrorists” and only certain folks as true “Americans”, how can we not expect our children to follow suit with intolerance? This sickens and saddens me – especially since it took place in my hometown, a place where I honestly never felt the victim of intolerance or anti-Semitism. And yes, it worries me terribly about our future.
This story made http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy headlines from our schools.
Oh my God. I would be terrified if my daughter came home and mentioned it was “Hit A Jew” day at school. And I thought trying to explain why Santa won’t visit her was difficult!
Hit a Jew day? Wasn’t that and episode on South Park once?
Lynch the lynch mob that lynches the lunch mob, that lynched the lynches the lynch mob….
What about the tall people….where is the love, where is the love the love the love?
This has me flabbergasted. Btw there was already a sizeable Jewish community in St Louis when I lived there in 77 and 78 so I don’t know what they are talking about there.
I agree with Gloria the educators are the ones who are disturbing. What a predictable but unacceptable comment from the principal, trying to gloss it over. The kids well, they get it from what they hear adults saying. But the educators?
[...] in the 1960’s racist era” moment. A middle school’s six graders decided to createHit a Jew Day – along with “Hit a Tall Person Day”. But hey, at least they started with “Hug a [...]
I’ll stick my neck out and go with the theory that a lot of those kids didn’t know what they were doing, or the extent of it. Pardon me if I’m going too off-topic or personal here.
I can relate one story from my childhood. We had a kid transfer into our grade school who was very different than our pretty homogeneous bunch. We offensively teased that poor kid for the rest of the school year. I can’t speak for the other children, but I had no understanding of his culture or the history of people being offensive against his culture. I had no clue how hurtful I was being. I am horrified now when I think of it. At home, my parents did not speak badly or well of his culture. It wasn’t mentioned, and so it was a grey area in my head. I had no rules for how to deal nicely with kids who were at all different.
I wonder if some of these kids do not understand what being Jewish really means. They may see it as something that just makes those kids different somehow, like being tall. My understanding of being Jewish at that age was that Jewish holidays were different than the Christian ones we celebrated. There was no sense of history or understanding that people could be proud of their culture and that isolating different kids to pick on like this could be hurtful. There was just a real lack of compassion and empathy, which is the self-centered way children operate most of the time.
I am also aware that at my school I was part of the majority culture, and that poor transfer kid was an “other.” No one could tease us; we were in the majority and so were “right.” I don’t think we even considered for a moment that we had anything that we could be teased about. I was such an ignorant little git.
What I hope has come across here is that it is possible that these kids had no idea what they’re doing. It looks like this will open up discussions about how to treat people who we perceive as different from ourselves, and that’s a good thing.
As a side note, I would be shocked if any of those kids read the school handbook and made the connection of how it related to them.
Pretty disgusting. Not much more I can add that hasnt been said yet.
SJ – I am empathetic to what you describe – I think you really try to do justice to how it is that some people can be clueless to how clueless they are – and I mean that in the totally benign sense of “without a clue” – not as in dizzy blonde or anything.
HOWEVER – have you ever seen or heard about the movie Paper Clips? It’s incumbent on educators (and, imo, parents) to teach their children and to model behavior that NEVER allows us to put ourselves up by putting others down – no matter WHAT the difference is.
The refusal to teach and enforce that teaching is what leads us to saying it’s okay in politics to attack people personally.
It’s not okay – it’s never okay.
Negative ads would NEVER work if people didn’t think at some level it’s okay to put others down, rather than talk about why you are worthy.
Again – I’m empathetic for what you describe, but it’s just not okay, esp. in today’s world. And again, I refer you to Paper Clips which is a wonderful story of people realizing that just because you may never interact with anyone who is remotely different from you (which of course is unrealistic), that is no excuse for teasing, taunting or bullying others.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Ok – yesterday I was giving the educators the benefit of the doubt. BUT – in today’s STL paper:
“Lelonek said she suspended three students Thursday. The students and their parents seemed truly sorry, she said.”
“You’ve got remorse, you’ve got tears, you’ve got embarrassment,” Lelonek said. “Not anti-Semitic behavior at all.”
Ok – seriously? As if one can’t behave in an Anti-Semitic way unknowingly or subconsciously? It is wrong. Period. I cannot BELIEVE a principal would make the statement that the behavior was not anti-Semitic because there was remorse, tears, and embarrassment. This floors me.
Of course, who knows what else she said that wasn’t reported or quoted – context is important, and I get that. But really, I’m disappointed in this reaction. I’d like to see her and the district’s administration use this as a teachable moment. They have an opportunity here to connect this kind of behavior to intolerance of all kinds, and I sincerely hope they take advantage of it.
http://eao.ru/Images/flag.gif
You may think this to be something other than what it is….
Then discover it is the flag of the JAR…then scratch your head some more.
I get weird things out of some posts, that’s just me, the last thing I ever do is chime along.
What I am getting out of this, is an odd feeling of organization of what is relatively an obscure thing in an obscure place. When I read I am seeing a high level of professionalism and intelligent detailing….categories that are propagated with real information, a site that offer three languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birobidzhan A Jewish community in the far east…a Stalin idea…scary never really went any were. But today it exist and with support of the Chinese? They are building a bridge to connect it with china?
All from the category of the world we live in…
Have I accidentally happened upon the Drudge Report here, or has the whole making a mountain out of a relative mole hill simply spread from his site? I’ll pray for those sixth graders, who will now be treated to the whole ADL rap about how sixth graders being obnoxious can easily lead to a second Holocaust if left unchecked. This was sixth grade kids, folks. If there was some suggestion that adults somehow put them up to this or otherwise encouraged it, perhaps, just perhaps, this might be worth half the attention being paid to it. But guess what: kids will do these kinds of things, and while parents, teachers and other adults need to nip things such as this in the bud, I think the extreme overreaction here is silly. The Jewish community’s overreaction to implied threats–even when they’re relative pin pricks, as they are here–gets a tad tiresome sometimes.
John, you are wrong. I have nothing to add at this time as a comment on what you’re written.
Would you like to excuse this adult’s behavior too, John?
There are no excuses that make these behaviors okay, John. There just aren’t.
I think if you’d reread what I said, I wasn’t excusing anyone’s behavior, least of all any adults. Instead, I was saying that the response is wholly out of proportion to the scope of the underlying incident, as it often is in these cases. And I refuse to get caught up in over-emotionalism surrounding these kinds of incidents (because they blur the facts), just as I do with the rabble-rousing prompted by the cro magnon right wing. Intelligent people are supposed to make more subtle distinctions than this. The ADL has its institutional imperatives (just like the Republican National Committee), and it’s in the interests of both to sometimes stir up a hornet’s nest to keep contributors pumped up. Fine. But I’d prefer they focus on bigger issues–because they are out there–than trying to pretend that sixth graders crossing the line with their thoughtless games is something that warrants national attention and revulsion. It doesn’t.
The communication network is more startling than the children, how to get it broadcast globally.
I know exactly what my father would have said, he would have said you are not allowed to hit anyone and particularly not the Jewish kid…are you crazy I could loose my house.
John, I think of you as a serious thinker and a serious friend of mine, with whom I have disagreements. To me, that is a sign of respect.
So with that in mind, I tell you this: I received word of this incident from a friend who lives in Chicago, as I wrote above, who learned of the situation because she used to live in that area. It had nothing to do with the ADL. I really could care less about what the ADL does on any day to day basis – I’m not an AIPAC supporter nor am I big ADL fan – never have been, don’t expect to be. I think both entities like many others serve important functions, but my upsetment over this incident has nothing to do with the ADL.
And I would guess that Gloria Ferris and others who’ve expressed outrage about the incident also do so with no connection to the ADL. So while you may have a beef with the ADL, clearly there are people who don’t even know who or what the ADL is. As far as I’m concerned – they can focus on whatever they want. It doesn’t impact me 99% of the time.
There’s a hornet’s nest here because the kids were wrong, the educators are showing some serious problems with understanding the egregiousness of what has happened and people are right to be upset.
That you aren’t, well, you own that and that’s fine.
But again, I completely disagree with your opinion about it being as trivial as I read your comments to indicate you believe this incident is/was.
The first clue that it’s serious is the “Hit a…Day” – Hit? Who the hell has a “hit” something or someone day as a spirit event?
That’s just ill, John.
Ya know, if the kids had done a “Hit a Catholic Day” there wouldn’t be nearly as big of a stink. Or “hit a blond”. Or maybe if they had used the word “tap” which is what they were doing, instead of “hit”.
I think there are several things going on here.
1. The propensity for humans to notice that some people are different than they are, and to put them into categories, a behavior that starts very young.
2. That any kind of selective pointing of fingers at people who represent a group that has been subject to discrimination or abuse is an anathema to thoughtful, civilized adults.
The kids could just as easily picked “fat kids” or “black kids” or “short kids” or “chinese kids” or “red headed kids” to “hit”, and then it might have been some other group up in arms. But it wouldn’t be about anti-semitic behavior.
Is it racist or bigoted for a child to notice that someone is different from them? No. It certainly looks that way when the next step is to “hit” or “tap” a person for their differences though.
Remembering how clueless I was as a six grader I tend to think that these kids stepped over a line that that they had no idea was there.
The lesson for them should be about basic human courtesy and respect, for ALL.
I think we can agree on all of that, Jill. Obviously, I’d be pretty horrified to learn that my kid had taken part in this. And I have no particular beef with ADL, other than that it does appear in this story as the group that’s going to be coming in to do a form of re-education training, which does give me the creeps, I admit. Oddly enough, as I may or may not have mentioned, my youngest son now happens to be in St. Louis, as a freshman at St. Louis U. So I guess I read it with even more interest, owing to that.
Elise – Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I think you espouse things we want to believe, but as a parent who has spent time in the schools and currently has a child in middle school, I disagree with your conclusions. I know there are other people who share your conclusions, I’m just repeating that I do not.
And frankly, I guess, the argument that we just wouldn’t hear about it so much or there wouldn’t have been as big a stink?
That has zero connection to how wrong it is to have a “hit” anyone day. Or to pick on kids who are fat, black, short or Chinese.
It’s just wrong, Elise. That’s how I feel, anyway.
Jill, thanks for replying. I do agree with you that it absolutely is the responsibility of adults to educate children before the situation arises. It is part of doing right by children and the world.
I’m sure you can tell from the tone that I was not excusing the adults who dropped the ball and left us ignorant. I will not do the same to my girls.
Thanks for the rec of Paper Clips–I will look into it.
The stupid kids involved in this whole incident should be slapped down and slapped down hard.
They were “just playing” is not even close to being an acceptable excuse.
Megan
The principal should be fired. She didn’t take it seriously until the ADL got involved. We don’t know who the kids were that participated. And we likely will not We don’t know if they were white, black, asian etc. The school is in an affluent area but kids are bused in from the inner city. It not necessary true that the kids were rednecks. It could have been anyone – any little ANTI-SEMITE. IT’S ONLY A TRIVAL THING UNTIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU OR YOUR KID.
The Jewish community’s overreaction to implied threats–even when they’re relative pin pricks, as they are here–gets a tad tiresome sometimes.
John,
Perhaps living too close to the burning river has dulled your senses to the historical context here and why some people would take this more seriously.
Certainly one could argue that these are just kids being kids, but there is a history of this sort of thing leading to more serious incidents.
Many of us are the children or grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. We are familiar with stories of what happened when neighbors suddenly turned on neighbor.
We know stories of relatives hiding in the fields from the Cossacks, of the Inquisition and all sorts of nasty stuff.
We also are familiar with stories of quotas for how many Jews could be admitted into universities, or country clubs that denied entrance to us and numerous other issues that really aren’t cute anecdotes that we tell around the kitchen table.
The thing is that when you find children engaging in this sort of dehumanizing behavior you slap it down. Certainly there is reason to be careful in your approach, but there is also reason to be vigilant about it.
Hit A Jew Day will not be deminished when these young punks learn about the Holocaust.
But that is the rub. Jews act like victims and expect the horrors of what their co-religionists suffered from the Nazis to make them seem more likeable to their hitters.
Why didn’t any of these Jewish children hit back? The only time a bully is afraid or backs off is when he is confronted by force.
“Don’t hit me. My people died in the Holocaust is music to the ears of the bully.
When Schindler’s List came out some Jewish organziation paid for black youngsters from a high school or middle school to go to the movie. They laughed and made fun of the Jews suffering under the Nazis. Thewse sociopathic youngsters who were the product of single parents and the welfare check could not show any empathy much less sympathy.
My advice to these Jewish parents is teach your children how to be strong, not weak and fight and not share.
Bill Levy