What do you think of this?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Sorry I don’t have a link yet. A junior honors student in a Brooklyn high school snuck into the school dressed as Hitler for Halloween. He was eventually ejected from the school for the costume and then wore it in again today and faces a 10-day suspension. What do you all think of that? I’m just imagining trying to explain that on a college application. All other things aside, why would his parents think this is a good idea, as they’re quoted doing?</p>

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<p>Well…Hitler WAS scary. But I don’t think there will ever be enough time passed to allow Hitler to join the ranks of Frankenstein, Dracula and other harmless Halloween characters. At least I certainly hope that day will never come.</p>

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<ol>
<li><p>I personally find it reprehensible, but certainly not worth a 10-day suspension.</p></li>
<li><p>High schools have never been big fans of the Bill of Rights, especially the first amendment. Actually, a local college has been in the news lately for forbidding access to students coming to a public lecture wearing t-shirts with the name of the Republican senatorial candidate on them. Free speech to anyone who agrees with me!</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>Wow Rick, hadn’t heard about that! (the t-shirt ban). While I don’t think a Hitler costume is in any way in good taste or fun and the student should have been sent home to change, I can’t believe a 10 day suspension. Just like the other thread going about the student climbing up on a vending machine getting a 3 day suspension. Gosh these schools must have no other problems to deal with–in our local district, first offense with drugs only gets them a 5 day suspension (if they agree to go to a drug counseling group)–10 days if they refuse counseling!</p>

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<p>My understanding is that the suspension is for disobeying school authority for wearing it back a second day after being told not to. I could see this as a nightmare for him next year when the GC (who is probably mad about this because the school is "Leon H. Goldstein high school) has to explain this in his rec. The kid on the vending machine could make something good out of that, but how would this kid come off as anything but an insensitive, arrogant jerk for (a) wearing it, (b) wearing it again, and (c) holding a press conference about it? Don’t you think admissions folks at colleges will see this kid as probably not worth the trouble? Here’s yesterday’s article about the initial wearing of the costume on Halloween. He wore it again the next day <a href=“HITLER YOUTH H’WEEN SHOCK – BROOKLYN HS GIVES BOY DAS BOOT FOR SICK-OR-TREAT”>HITLER YOUTH H’WEEN SHOCK – BROOKLYN HS GIVES BOY DAS BOOT FOR SICK-OR-TREAT;

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<p>Zoo~</p>

<p>As a mother of some high schoolers who have experienced various forms of antiSemitism at their own school, I’ve had to sit here and think about this for a bit. My first reaction was that a 10-day suspension was excessive for <em>wearing</em> something, no matter how offensive or against the rules it was. Now, though, I think I would have to reconsider…because, as you say:

This is a kid who clearly had an agenda, and IMHO, if his parents allowed it on the second day, they had one too. The news conference attests to that.</p>

<p>With the competition level for college apps. these days, why SHOULD a college select someone like this kid over one who does not show an egregious disrespect for school authorites and for his classmates? No one owes him admission, and his h.s. record was his to build as he saw fit.</p>

<p>~berurah</p>

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<p>Sorry, I missed that he had already worn it and was asked to not return to school with this on. I do think schools have the right to ask students not to wear anything that is disruptive to the educational environment–and this certainly was. It doesn’t even sound like other students were in costume, so this was not a designated “dress up” day.</p>

<p>As far as colleges–I wouldn’t want to deal with him, but there are probably schools out there that would see his willingness to put himself in the limelight, defend his “reasons”, etc. as a positive. Not the kind of leader I would want my kids “following”…</p>

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<p>“With the competition level for college apps. these days, why SHOULD a college select someone like this kid over one who does not show an egregious disrespect for school authorites and for his classmates? No one owes him admission, and his h.s. record was his to build as he saw fit.”</p>

<p>That’s what I think too. It seems to me that he knew his school was heavily Jewish and wanted to hurt/shock people. I can say with absolute certainty that I would never have allowed my kids to do pretty much anything for the sole purpose of hurting and shocking other people. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should, if that makes any sense. Even if he has perfect SAT and GPA next year, this is clearly not a nice person and who would want to bring that into a freshman class? I wouldn’t.</p>

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<p>

This was the crux of my argument in front of the school board last month when we went before it to discuss the yearbook issue. It makes <em>perfect</em> sense.</p>

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<p>Why assume he’ll be applying to colleges?</p>

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<p>“Why assume he’ll be applying to colleges?”</p>

<p>Well because he’s an honor student at a good high school and I think at least one of the parents is an academic. I could be wrong, though. A complete assumption on my part.</p>

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<p>Why is it that so many people seem to believe that they have all these rights but no one seems to have any social responsibilities to go along with them? How unfortunate that our forefathers failed to also establish a Bill of Social Responsibilities.</p>

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<p>

YES. YES. YES. YES. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.</p>

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</p>

<p>I understand exactly what you mean, and I still think the drafters of the Bill of Rights were spot on. I would much rather live in a society where no one was subject to punishment for speaking their mind than one that uses social ostracism or the law to punish anyone that does not share the community’s sense of “Social Responsibilities.” </p>

<p>I am just as opposed to Nazi beliefs as any other normal person. I also completely support anyone’s right to write mentally-deficient, evil tracts on the alleged Myth of Holocaust. Why? Because I don’t want to be the one who says “this is acceptable and this is not,” and I darned sure don’t want to give anyone else that power either. I would rather accept the evil of people writing or saying truly reprehensible things that the much greater evil of supressing dissident ideas. </p>

<p>American democracy is messy and I wouldn’t have it any other way.</p>

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<p>Well…he obviously didn’t learn from the problems Prince Harry had last year ;)</p>

<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sun_harry_the_nazi.jpg[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sun_harry_the_nazi.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Public School is not a democracy. An individual student does not have the freedom of speech rights. While I don’t know about the ten day suspension, the kid surely deserved a serious punishment for ignoring the rules two days in a row.</p>

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<p>Okay, I just read the article, didn’t want to bother at first. I don’t ever recall reading a story about anyone in school who was not an honor student, so I question what that means. I can’t tell from the article whether the high school is good or not.</p>

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<p>…whether the high school is good or not…</p>

<p>Doesn’t matter what the status of the high school - what matters is the social responsibility attached to the student involved.</p>

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<p>My original remark had to do with some concern of posters that it would be hard to get good college recs. I realize this is a college board, but my cryptic point was that that should be the least of this kid’s worries. </p>

<p>It’s not worth the effort to type on the keys.</p>

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<p>“It’s not worth the effort to type on the keys.”</p>

<p>Then don’t (no offense). You’ve posted along that line a couple of times now, so I wonder why you’re responding at all to something that obviously and understandably doesn’t interest you.</p>