Parkway West Middle meets with Anti-Defamation League; Two more students suspended
Parkway West Middle School Principal Linda Lelonek met with leaders of the Anti-Defamation League this morning, and, according to district officials, discussed the school’s multi-cultural and sensitivity programs.
Lelonek would not comment immediately today. She has been bombarded with criticism and public outrage after the school found out about a student-created “Hit A Jew Day” Monday.
But Paul Tandy, spokesperson for the district, said the meeting went well, and two more students have been suspended.
“We’re not finished,” Tandy said. “There’s a lot of individual sessions going on right now, with individual students and families.”
Tandy also said the school has moved up the schedule of a Parkway School District discrimination program called Honoring All Voices.
The last few days have been difficult at the school, Tandy said. He’s taken calls from alumni and media from California to London to Tel Aviv. “I’m saddened by the response all over the world,” he said this morning. “I’m just sad about the whole thing.”
He added, however, that he feels the school reacted well once it learned of the trouble.
“I know, in my heart, this school is going to do what’s right for kids,” Tandy said. “They’ve acted very agressively. I feel very good about the way it’s been handled.”
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.
It is really sad that people have to hit jews in a game. Those kids faces, names and addresses should be put on websites so people can tell them they are wrong.
The parents of students clearly involved should PUBLICALLY apologize for this disgraceful event. These kids are old enough to know right from wrong and the fact the things were not violent-as explained by the principal, has nothing to do with the issue. This event should not be minimized or brushed under the carpet. Shame on this school.
This is not the only discriminatory issue that has occurred at Parkway schools. The district HAD included in its non-discrimination policy both sexual orientation and gender expression, however, they covertly removed it recently without telling anyone.
Now, the children regularly harrass other kids about their sexual orientation or that of their parents. Since most children of elementary and middle school age are not yet mature enough to form their own rock solid thoughts and opinions on issues like this, they are getting these twisted ideas from their parents. That is disgraceful and wrong!
At the very least the district must reinstate the non-discrimination policy as it was written before and, in my opinion, add a few more protected classes as well. Obviously people are still going to push it, but at least this way the parties who are being harrassed will have some recourse against those who are so hate filled and ignorant.
I’ve only seen this article and a video news report. But it appears to me that the school has responded properly. And it certainly can’t be expected to anticipate something like this. There are no adults to blame here other than these kids’ parents. It’s a shame their names can’t be made public. BTW, I’m Jewish, and I hope that the Jewish people who deal with this directly don’t play the “blame the whole city for the actions of a few” game that we generally see in these situations.
It should have been stopped at “Hit a Tall Person” day. Totally inappropriate to single out any group for behavior that has the potential to be violent, embarassing, discriminatory, degrading, and disrepectful.
Wow, does no-one remember middle school? I grew up down the street from parkway west and in a multi (catholic and jewish) religion household. This is a case of kids being kids. Not racial, religous or sexual descrimination. This is kids teasing each other. It is how life is and the fact that so many people are taking it way out of context is the main problem with the media being in everyones business. The school is handling it and the children just need to be sat down with the principle to reiterate that social intolerance is not a game. We do NOT need a witch hunt. Public humiliation and apologies are completely innappropriate in this instance and everyone just needs to calm down.
Sastaab: I just talked to Parkway. The district says it had to change its policies when the law changed recently
in August. The law now says that school districts can’t list individual groups to be protected, but must protect all equally. Here’s the text, from section 160.775:This is more than just the students. This is a problem with the families. Children don’t just become anti a type of person without some teachings from their parents.
(I suspect that these are the same families that would say that Obama is a Muslium.)
Thank you Matt - btw - these kids should not be publicly humiliated. How preposterous is that. If you recall, it was a self proclaimed spirit week by the kids, not a school sponsored event. It started of with ‘hug a friend’ day, then ‘high five’ day, then it turned a little silly with ‘hit a tall person day’ and then the ‘hit a jew’ day. These kids, I’m sure had no idea it was going to escalate to this. I am sure they have learned their lesson from all this by the punishment they are receiving from school and their parents. I can guarantee you that these kids are in no way going to be shaving their heads or wearing swastikas anytime soon. Kids are kids - it’s up to us to teach them right from wrong. It was an innocent mistake that I am sure they have learned from and paid dearly for. BTW - if you think what these kids did was awful - just read some of the bashing that is going on right here on STLTODAY.com on the comment pages regarding all the presidentail stuff or shootings in StL. Talk about name calling and defamation of character!!! Sheesh!!!
This whole thing has been ridiculously blown out of proportion.