Parkway West Middle principal says she took “Hit A Jew Day” seriously from start
Several story and blog replies today suggested that Parkway West Middle School principal Linda Lelonek didn’t take the troubles stemming from the student-created “Hit A Jew Day” seriously, and didn’t correctly reprimand the students involved.
I called Lelonek back just now, and she referred again to her account in this morning’s Post-Dispatch:
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.’”
From her perspective, she acted as quickly as she could have. She spoke directly about the inappropriate nature of targeting groups of students, even in jest.
“And I was speaking from my heart,” she said just now. “Every child knew that. I was very serious.”
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The pack mentality of junior high students is the problem here. There have always been bullies and kids who instigate trouble, especially in this age group–they are notoriously cruel. I know junior high was miserable for me, and my only ‘difference’ was red hair. Our school system is broken; the assembly line approach doesn’t educate on hard subjects or soft, and parents have abandoned their resposibility as the first and foremost educators of their own children to incompetent strangers. My kids would never participate in anything like this: but then, I had enough sense to pull them out of the government system and educate them myself. This is about common courtesy not being taught, not intolerance.