Friday, October 24, 2008

Shame, shame and double shame…

A bitch went to Parkway schools.

As a matter of fact, I spent the bulk of my educational life in the Parkway system.

That was some 20 years ago (wince) and a bitch liked to hope that the bigot-based bullying that I endured during my time there had gone the way of the campus smoking lounge.

But news that five students have been suspended from Parkway West Middle School for hitting Jewish students as part of Hit a Jew Day…well, that just makes me sick.

Some students were hit on the back.

One student was slapped in the face.

Just sick!

Clearly this incident should be a wake up call to Parkway, but it really needs to be a wake up call to the community too.

I can’t imagine what I’d do if I got a call saying my child had hit or slapped another student as part of…ugh!

Shit.

This isn’t about tolerance.

This is about respect.

And if they’re going to haul students into an auditorium for sessions on diversity they need to make damn sure they haul their parents in for the same fucking sessions.

Fuck it, spring for a semester.

Damn it.

Sigh.

My thoughts are with the students subjected to this mess and their families.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I couldn't believe it when I heard the story tonight Shark Fu...broke my heart.

Some days I think we have moved forward in the fight for equality and other days...its two steps friggin' back. :(

Anonymous said...

Have they not learned a damn thing since 1983??

Anonymous said...

From the Post-Dispatch story cited in the USA Today piece in your post:

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.


It sure sounds like the principal gets it, and the students (and parents) are about to.

Damn.

Anonymous said...

Between this story and the Normandy mass HIV testing my heart hurts for the youth of St. Louis County (it already hurt for the youth of St. Louis City but that's another story)

Kristin said...

All I can do is shake my head. I too graduated from the Parkway system. Let's just say they were NOT the best years of my life. A long legacy of bigotry from all over, not just the students.

The community needs to wake up and see how crucial lessons of not only diversity but EMPATHY are to their kids as they enter the global community.

Unknown said...

It wasn't any better at Ladue. Especially if your parents owned a house in Creve Coeur.

sk7 said...

It is clear that not only are our schools in trouble, but parents are failing as well. No child is born hating anything.

I went to Ritenour, class of '96. Things were rough there. But as I recall, most of the students had a "we're all poor, and we're all in this together" attitude.

Racism and bigotry were present for sure but not on the level represented by the ignorance that took place at Parkway.

I have 2 year old son and I am frightened by what school and the world as a whole might be like for him if this "regression" of our society continues.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for sharing.
Through your blog, a lot of people including me of course have a chance to read and learn from.

libhom said...

I remember living in St. Charles, but my family moved after second grade, so I never found out how such things were there. I wonder how Parkway compares.

No one has ever lost money or felt foolish by overestimating the human capacity for bigotry.

Sad, sad, sad.

Anonymous said...

Ugh. Part of the reason I moved to St. Louis is to get away from such bigotry. Granted, most people are still a lot better than my small rural illinois town (one kid i know framed his great grandfather's slave trading papers and hung them on his wall). But still...such a sad state of mind to live in.

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