This is a well written, if short, article. And this article is once again AP.
The lead was good. I was definitely hooked. I immediately wanted to know why there was such a day as "Hit a Jew Day" and how the kids got away with even starting it.
I want to know what the kids thought of it. Are there laws against interviewing kids without parental permission? Did he even try to find out what the kids thought about all of this. How about the kids who planned it; what was their intent?
I don't know about your school, but in my school whenever anyone tried to create days like "Hug a Friend Day" it never worked out. It would take agreement between the students and some organization. Even for 10 of the 35 Jewish kids to get hit is an amazing amount for junior high kids to organize. It would have never been accomplished in my junior high school. And were all the days planned out at the beginning of the week or did they go day by day? How did they spread the word about what every day was? How many tall kids were hit on the previous day? Why was this not stopped after the hit a tall kid day? Seems to me that any hitting should not be going on, whether it's based off of physical appearance or ethnicity/religion. Where were the teachers for all of this?
I feel like there should be more than 2 sources. I understand that there is a "district spokesman", Paul Tandy, but how do parents feel about this? Parents of the kids who got in trouble and the parents of the Jewish kids?
"Karen Aroesty, St. Louis regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said this was more than a case of bullying." How does she know what these kids were thinking? Can one really put the intentions of adults on children? Sure, they should have known it was wrong, but I honestly think they viewed the "Hit a Jew Day" as no different than "Hit a Tall Person Day" They didn't think about the implications it would have. If Christians or atheists were the minority, I believe these kids would have chosen them. I don't think they viewed the Jewish kids as lower than them, any more than they view the tall kids that way.
"Officials from the group plan to discuss the matter with school leaders," is a good ending. It allows us to know what is happening from here. I would be interested to know what punishment the kids involved do get.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-10-23-jewish-students_N.htm
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Wow. Really? Are we living in Nazi Germany and I didn't know it? Kids these days are becoming increasingly horrible. I agree with your statement that when I was younger and we tried to organize something, only one or two-three if we were really lucky-would participate.
These children should be punished. I think in the article it also said that they would go through counseling (maybe to make sure it won't happen again?). Well, I think their parents should also receive a punishment. I mean, these kids are in middle school, so they should not be acting like this.
I can't believe something like this would happen. Even the "hit a tall person day" was out of line. We are re-enforcing prejudices by allowing kids to do and participate in things like this. "Hit a Jew day" was the worst, but any day that included the word "hit" and was followed by a person with some characterisitc should not have been allowed. Period.
This is an example of hit-and-run reporting. Clearly, the reporter was drawn to the peculiarity of the situation and little else. Here are some questions to explore. Is antisemitism on a rise throughout society? Is this silly day created by irreverent students symbiotic of larger trends. What are the effects of shows like "South Park," which routinely castigate Jews?
Had all of your follow-up questions been answered, this article would have been much better. I suppose the reporter thought it wasn't of enough importance to do that much investigation, but I really think it's worth it. I've never heard of anything like this and I would have liked to hear a child's or parent's perspective.
Judging from the comments received already, further investigation of this topic would attract readers. Anybody need a news feature topic?
This is by far one of the most surprising articles I've read lately. This is such an interesting event that I feel like had it been explored more, or had a follow up piece, it would have been better. I'm taken aback by the fact that kids so young would have such spirit-like days, but also that they were so successful. I wonder if things like this occur often.
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