More Parkway residents ask for “Hit A Jew Day” investigation
Nearly 130 names now fill the bottom of Parkway School District parent Edward Weinhaus’s letter to the district board.
Friday afternoon, Weinhaus, a father of four in the Parkway area, posted his web site, www.parkwayinvestigation.com, hoping to pressure Parkway board members to dig deeper into the student-titled “Hit A Jew Day” that raised the ire of Jews and non Jews nationwide.
“As a Jewish parent, I was horrified to learn of “Hit a Jew Day” for the safety of my children,” Weinhaus says in the letter. “As a human being, I would have been just as horrified to hear “Hit a Christian”, “Hit a Muslim”, or “Hit a Hispanic” or “Hit a Black”, or “Hit an Asian”, or “Hit a White Person”, or “Hit a Girl”, or…does the list end?”
Weinhaus is worried about the students who started the “day” last week. But he’s at least equally worried about the administration’s reaction to those students.
“We leave our children with these people,” he said today. “Will the adult in Parkway School District please stand up? There’s something wrong here.”
The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday.com/thegrade.
I too was disappointed not only in the kids, the school and parents but the reactions from others.
I think a strong reaction is needed but NOT a simple suspension. Heck, these days, a suspension is just considered an extended weekend to kids.
They should be given community service at a senior home or even the holocaust museum would suffice. Make them learn from their mistakes by hard work, sacrifice and repentance…Not by a longer weekend or a mini vacation of a suspension.
Christopher Powers
Powers By Design
This is really starting to get ridiculous. How much are we going to make these children pay for a dumb mistake? Yes, education on the holocaust is necessary, but some people *cough weinhaus cough* want to turn this into a witch hunt.
No kidding, how much do these kids need to suffer for this dumb mistake? Do these parents want the kids thrown out of school? What will be enough??This is becoming harassment of the kids now!
Agreeing with Christopher Powers’ statement, I am disappointed that the school does not consider a separate cirriculum that exposes many of these children to world history, sociology/social justice, and conflict resolutation. A suspension allows the opportunity for parenting at home and time away from the privilege of attending school. I highly doubt these children will receive attention different than what made such actions admissible in a school environment.
Without a separate, different and lasting accountability, I highly doubt these young adults will conduct themselves differently in the future. They will look on this as one instance of getting caught by a select group and how these groups responded. Since young adults have a short attention span and burgeoning analytical skills, I think any intervention must be reinforced over the course of several years, sporadically and with differing degrees of insight and assignment.
Shameless plug: sometimes the arts are necessary to understand infusing one’s life with beauty and mystery - building respect across a ravine of differences. What are these children not receiving, if all the wealth and resources are provided?
Isn’t half of Parkway either Jew or Asian anyway? I could see everyone getting a “hit” day at some point.
What those kids did was horrible — I haven’t read the Parkway code of behavior in a long time, but I’d think violence warrants expulsion, not suspension (perhaps this is measured against the child’s age and maturity?).
However, I don’t understand what Mr. Weinhaus hopes to do with this site and letter. Does he think that the schools control the childrens’ every thought and action, that the teachers know of all underground activity and gossip? If he thinks that to be true, then we’d have no issues with underage drinking, sex or drug use because teachers and parents could know about and squelch these activities every day. Further, some of the questions he poses are possibly un-answerable due to union/employee agreements and FERPA rights.
Having been involved with a Lot of school districts, I live in Parkway because it’s provided an above-average education for my three kids. My hope is that my kids will aspire to emulate their peers’ good behavior (99% college track, for example). Mr. Weinhaus’ letter does nothing to improve peer behavior, but instead encourages blame-making. In some cases, all the teachers and administrators can do is make a mistake or incident into a learning experience. I hope the discussions of tolerance and differences are the outcomes, not a lot of finger-pointing at the district. I hope Mr. Weinhaus finds a constructive way to help the district learn more about our faith and its rich traditions, to connect the district to the wonderful social and outreach programs offered within the Jewish community.
Expulsion? Perhaps we should crucify them too. Here’s a fact: I know one of the kids involved in it, and he isn’t one bit anti-Semitic. He has quite a few Jewish friends, including his best friend. This was in poor taste, yes. But these were dumb kids doing something dumb, not junior bigots.
Consider this: When these children are out on suspension, they are getting Fs for everything they miss. Do we want these kids to have to repeat whatever grade they are in because of something ridiculous like this? Because adults have turned this into a political issue, the punishment will far exceed the infraction. In the end, these kids will learn a lesson … but it won’t be about bigotry, it will be about injustice.
I am a Jewish guy myself. I have a number of non Jewish friends and we kid around all the time!! I kid with my non Jewish friends that the Jews are rich, own hollywood, own the banks, I tell my gentile friends from South county that they are red necks, my mixed race friends to pick a color and stick to it, etc. etc. etc. How do we know that a bunch of guys were not just having fun and someone made a comment since this spirit week was going on…and said “lets have Hit a Jew Day”. lets get over it people…we have more important things to worry about than this like….companies closing, stocks going down hill, etc. etc. etc. I am sure the Parkway peeps will take care of this. Its like you guys have never heard words like this before?! It has happened in the past and will continue to happen.
How many times have we heard:
“Well I’m Jewish but…. (meaning it’s only used when needed)”
or
“I’m not Jewish but….. (meaning I’m terrified a jew will overhear me and get the jewish boss to fire me..)
As a middle school teacher, and a former sixth grade teacher at West Middle, I can tell you these things:
1)while the kid who came up with the idea of “hit a jew” day may have a background that includes anti-semitism, perhaps from a parent, the other 12 year-olds that followed suit were just that: followers. I sincerely doubt that there was anything malicious about “hit a jew” day beyond that of “hit a tall person” day or “hit a jock” day.
2)Linda Lelonek, head principal of West Middle, is hopelessly out-of-touch with the student body, in general, and the sixth grade wing, in particular. Rarely does she even enter the sixth grade wing.
3)discipline at West Middle is a joke. Teachers regularly have discipline referrals returned to them, with grade-level principals refusing to act on them (this comes directly from above - from Ms. Lelonek). While I have no way of knowing this for certain, I would not be at all surprised to learn that one or more teachers brought issues of a “spirit week” up to the grade level principal, but nothing was done with it.
4)to the post left by “How absurd!” - students on suspension are given every opportunity to make up work assigned during their time away from school - in fact, the school is required to facilitate this make up.