I'm sorry, but there are no pictures with this post and I'm writing a serious post today.
This morning's newspaper had a front page article about WD's high school. Not a look how great these kids are article, or even a budget shortfall article, but a hate crime-multiple supensions article. Apparently 37 students were suspended with a few possible expulsions for participating in "kick a Jew day." WTF? I'm not making this up.
It appears that this was all born out of a twist on South Park's "kick a ginger day." Word of this was spread on facebook and, though ours was the only local school, this "kick a Jew day" happened at schools across the nation. The South Park episode was a satirical look at how dumb it is to target specific groups for hate and derision, but kids aren't exactly the best at discerning satire. This is why my kids aren't allowed to watch the show, even though CG thinks it's funny.
I pride myself in the fact that my teenager still talks to me. He tells me what kids take what drugs, which ones smoke, who was caught doing what, which kids were suspended for fighting, who came to school drunk, etc. I didn't hear a peep out of him about this. Not word one. Lucky for me there was a 2 hour delay this morning, so I had plenty of time to talk to him.
We talked about how hate is wrong in all it's forms. How herd mentality can have grave consequences. How a stupid prank can turn out so bad. How targeting specific groups for any type of bias is wrong(especially given our own ethnic makeup.) How any 18 yr old in the group could be charged as an adult and that a hate crime is a felony. How proud I was that he didn't participate in this craziness.
And then we discussed who did participate. What in the heck is going on? These weren't "bad kids" with "bad parents." The vast majority were athletes and honor students, student government members and girl scouts, band members and Special Olympics volunteers. I don't know how my kid stood up and chose not to kick a fellow classmate that day. I don't know how I raised a kid who chose the right path, because I don't know that I've done anything different than those other parents. Is there a way to danger proof our kids' lives? Or do we just keep our fingers crossed?
Sorry about the deviation from my usual recipes, and decor posts. Thanks for sticking with me on this serious topic.
Thats really sad but wonderful that your son did not particpate in that! I hate South Park, my hubs watches it and I roll my eyes and walk out of the room, I just dont find it funny at all!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!!! South Park comes off as funny to kids....but they deal with some serious issues in a very WRONG way...Keep being a great MOM!
ReplyDeleteHow scary. The dumb mob mentality. Discernment is such a valuable tool to teach our kids and some just don't get it. We don't watch that show, thank goodness...I didn't know it was THAT bad. Just unfunny.
ReplyDeleteWhat keeps me up at night is that he didn't tell me about it. He was plenty forthcoming when I asked him about it, but he apparently didn't think it was a big enough deal to bring it up during our typical, "How was your day, Anything interesting happen today?" conversation. That scares me.
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