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.”

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.