“Hit A Jew Day”

First they came for the tall people, and then they came for the Jews. Today’s give-you-pause headline, courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Parkway West Middle students to be punished for ‘Hit A Jew Day.’”

Four or five Parkway West Middle School students will be disciplined after administrators found out this week that they designated a “Hit A Jew Day” at the 850-student school.

Principal Linda Lelonek learned Monday evening that her sixth-graders had started an unofficial “spirit week” last week.

The students started with “Hug A Friend Day,” moved to “High Five Day,” “Hit A Tall Person Day,” and then, finally, this Monday, to “Hit A Jew Day,” representatives of the Parkway School District said.

The students generally were not being violent, Lelonek said, but instead “tapping” their peers.

“It was almost like a tag thing,” Lelonek said. “But then it changed.”

She now knows of three or four students who were slapped; none told school officials about being hit. “They said, ‘We were just playing,’” she said.

Sure, sure. It always starts out as “just playing.” First it’s taps, then it’s slaps. Next thing you know, it’s Kristallnacht.

Props to the principal at Parkway West Middle School for the timely intervention. Looking forward to hearing about that extra-special Holocaust lesson coming later this year.

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