NAPLES — Ten North Naples Middle School students were suspended last week after district officials said they participated in “kick a Jew day.”
District Spokesman Joe Landon said a student told the dean of students at dismissal on Thursday that she was kicked because it was “kick a Jew day.”
The following morning Principal Margaret Jackson addressed the entire student body on the morning news regarding the incident, reviewing the code of student conduct, explaining why what happened was wrong, the need to respect one another and possible consequences, Landon said.
Jackson asked that anyone with information on the incident come to the office and speak with her or the assistant principal as they investigated the incident.
As a result, the district determined that 10 students should be punished. The students received a one day, in-school suspension, which was served today. The parents of the 10 students were also called and conferences with the parents followed the phone calls, according to Landon.
Parents of the students who were kicked were also notified of what happened, Landon said.
Landon said until further notice, the school will focus the first 20 minutes of each day on character traits, beginning with respect and kindness. Homeroom teachers will speak with the students about these traits and will focus on bullying prevention, he said. Videos on the topic will be sought out and used as part of the training, he said.
Landon said the first 20 minutes of the school day is normally used for reading time and tutoring time if students need help.
David Barkey, south area council for the Florida Anti-Definmation League, said the organization had been made aware of the incident.
“You are talking about an incident that has anti-Jewish bias if not anti-Semitism. You have Jewish students being singled out, harassed and assaulted,” he said. “If the allegations are true, it is possible these students violated Florida’s new anti-bullying law. And, if students were physically assaulted, it could rise to the level of criminal conduct.”
Rabbi James Perman, of Temple Shalom in North Naples, called the situation “alarming.”
“I can tell you this: I haven’t seen anything like it in my 17 years in Naples. No child deserves this kind of treatment,” he wrote in an e-mail Monday. “Their parents are understandably outraged. So far it seems that the school system has taken appropriate measures and we applaud their efforts. At this point, teaching sensitive awareness is more important than punishing anyone.”
Perman said how the situation is handled is of concern to those at the Temple because it involves children.
“Beyond that, there are critical issues for the entire Jewish community and beyond. … These are not new issues for us here in Naples,” he wrote. “These 10 kids did not invent anti-Semitism. They found a sympathetic response that was already there on some level.”
He said the Temple is ready to help.
The Collier County School District has a policy on bullying and harassment. It defines bullying as “systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees.”
Harassment is defined as “any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, use of data or computer software, or written, verbal or physical conduct directed against a student or school employee that places a student or school employee in reasonable fear of harm to his/her person or damage to his/her property,” among other things.
The students were disciplined in accordance with the bullying and harassment policy, which can range from “positive behavioral interventions up to and including suspension or expulsion, as outlined in the Code of Student Conduct,” according to the district’s policy.
(Source: NaplesNews.com)
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27 Responses
“He said the Temple is ready to help.”
The “Temple” is a big part of the problem.
This undoubtedly “reform” or “conservative”
“temple” that teaches warped hashkafas (IF it teaches anything) has no problem with Jewish kids going to public schools.
Maybe this sad incident is HaSh-m’s way of waking these kids up to what and who they are, since their parents and their “temple” didn’t do it.
Where is the original JDL when you need them?
I would like to know what the source of this “business” was. There are Muslims in Naples. In the Yated Ne’eman, many times it documents how the source of the majority anti-semitic attacks in Europe are from Muslims.
AinOhdMilvado(#1) Your comment is grossly inappropriate, a chilul Hashem, and even revolting. When Yidden are attacked for being Jews we band together; we stand together – we love each other – and we do everything possible to support each other.
You are either too young or too dense to see the horrible irony of what you are saying. Do you think Hitler cared about a Yid’s Hoshkofa?
Is the Jewish kid in public school any less of a Jew? Was the 1948 victory of the Haganah any less because of their misguided freikeit? And . . . if the Reform place down there is able help protect the community, are you going to spit on them . . . with Torah?
Give Me a Break, Rav Shach, ZT”L, was the founder of the Yated Ne’eman. If you are questioning the authenticity of their stories, than what does that say about your own personal philosophy.
The Yated Ne’eman is still lead by gedolim. Our gedolim read it, critique it, and are constantly consulted before stories are posted. If there is any news story that is inconsistent with the Torah, there are letter to the editor with retractions if halacha and kavod HaTorah requires it.
But, I guess you don’t have any such respect for the Torah HaKadosha. Is it because you are insulted that we Jews reject YOUR prophet Muhammed?!
Correction to my #3 comment. I should have written,”…many times it documents how the source of the majority OF PRESENT DAY anti-semitic attacks in Europe…”
Did that clear things up?
#5 Yonasan – I have to say that I love how when anyone says something you disagree with, (or don’t understand) it’s a “chilul HaSh-m”. I don’t know why you’re bringing hitler ym”sh or the Haganah into this discussion. I never mentioned either, and there is no shaichus to this news item.
I never said these kids were not Jews, or lesser Jews (that is YOUR warped interpretation).
But I feel its a safe bet that these kids are uneducated, assimilatED or assimilatING Jews.
It would not be the first time that goyish anti-semitism was the catalyst for Jews waking up to the fact that they ARE Jews.
“The reform place… is able to help protect the community”??? You must be kidding! The only way they might be “protecting” them is that we wont have to worry about a “kick the Jew” day in another generation or two, because thanks to the intermarriage rate amongst the reform, there wont be any (identifiable) Jews there to kick!
AinOhdMilvado, don’t try to argue with YonasonW. He is too arrogant to see the folly of his ways nor how his viewpoint has no basis in Halacha or Hashkofas Hatorah.
I just went to the Debbie Schlussel website. She wrote about this too. Funny, she came to the same conclusion as me. Hey Give Me a Break, why don’t you check out her website before you rake me over the coals again?
Hold your horses! Just because someone criticizes Rabbi Lipschitz of the Yated doesn’t mean Harav Shach was criticized. Easy. Not everything in the Yated is holy. Don’t compare it to T’nach. The Yated is only a newspaper. and an opinianated one at that. Thare is very much to condem and criticize.
I wouldn’t say they go against yiddishkeit in any way. They maintain Torah values as they see it. But their leanings and philosophies have their own direction. Do you really think that Gedolei Yisroel read or lead what is written. Please lets not be naive.
Remember its only a newspaper. We in the torah world can have differing opinions with Sifrei Kodesh as long as its not cholilah against Torah values.
Anonymous – Try having a thought that is not obnoxious.
it’s about time they started teaching character traits in school
AinOhdMilvado,
i totally agree with you. prior to the rise of the reform movement in germany in the early 1800s and the rise of the conservative movement around the same time in poland, there were absolutely no instances of antisemitism. the “warped hashkafa” they teach definitely led to the rise of antisemitism and the persecution of the jewish people.
#1 you are so out of line here. To blame any other branch of our religion is just plain obscene. You don’t have to agree with those that are not as frum as you would like to see them be…but to say that having Jewish children going to public schools as a cause of this type of thing happening is just beyond reason. The way I’m reading your comment is to say that if one is not perfectly observant or yeshiva educated then they are not good Jews. Please tell me have you followed each and every Torah rule to perfection and never did anything even slightly questionable.
#17 & 18 – If you (#17 can get past your sarcasm and actually) read what I wrote, you will see that I never said that these movements are/were the cause of of anti-semitism.
What I did say was that they do not teach what authentic Torah Judaism is, and that they have no problem with the social mixing with non-Jews that going to public school causes.
As a sad result of their lack of authentic Jewish education, these kids do not even know what it means to be a Jew, and will very likely end up intermarrying, as a huge percentage of “reform” Jews do.
As upsetting as this kicking incident was, maybe some good can come out of it, if it wakes these kids up to the fact that they ARE Jews, and just like the goyim apparently know that, THEY should know it too.
#17 – to respond to your comment… It IS in fact pretty much impossible to be observant if one is not yeshiva educated. (Yes, I realize that a ba’al T’shuva can make up for that lack of yeshiva education later, but the fact remains that you do need the Jewish education at some point just to know HOW to be observant of Torah requirements). And YES, I AM saying that one who is not observant is not a good Jew. He or she may be a good PERSON, but if they are not Torah observant, then there is no difference between them and a non-Jew that is a good person. I do not claim to be perfect, and no one is perfect, BUT I do accept ALL of the Torah as G-d given, and make every effort to observe it fully.
The criminals in this matter is the supervisors who saw fit not to punish a crime so racial and so violent. For this they should be locked up and the key thrown away.
Give Me a Break:
In this week’s parsha (ויצא), Lovon hugs and kisses Yaakov, and according to Rashi, he was looking to see if Yaakov has any hidden diamonds on him.
Rav Don Segal shlit”a asks, why can’t we just say simply that Lovon displayed some brotherly love towards his nephew once, instead of turning the context of the possuk completely around.
He answers: “אויב מ’קען, פארוואס נישט” (If we can, then why not?)
So here too, please don’t give the Muslims ימח שמם any לימוד זכות here, or anywhere for that matter.
(Also, refer to the Malbim in the הגדה של פסח where he speaks about Lovon vs. Paroh (in צא ולמד), that we don’t look for good points about רשעים.)
reply to comment 18.
i wonder how many ba’al teshuvahs you’ve just offended. i think i’ll just thank you now for completely offending me and many others who were brought up any way other than european-orthodox tradition with non-orthodox parents. strangely, i’d say that my non-orthodox family certainly shows better ahavas yisroel than you’ve demonstrated on this topic. it’s people like you who make bts second guess their decisions to enter the “torah observant” world. as a jew, you have a responsibility to be a “light unto nations.” please, for the sake of the whole jewish people and the (supposed) desire to rebuild the temple and usher in the coming of moshiach, turn that light on and be an example for others. if a non-orthodox jew was reading this board, i can’t see that they’d have any reason to become religious or even want to mix with orthodox people.
by the way, what is the orthodox community doing to help in this situation? apparently, they must feel that the reform temple has it under control, otherwise i’m sure they’d step in and start saving neshamas….
#21 I agree with your response to #18’s comments. I for one was not brought up in an orthodox environment..to best describe my background would be to say traditional with both sets of grandparents coming from Russia/Poland. My father was born overseas and my mother born in the USA. Inspite of what #18 has said I was brought up to never forget who I am or what my people went thru both here in America and back in Europe and was instilled with as much Jewish values as possible short of a formal Yeshiva education. I married a Jewish woman and raised children to know as I learned who they are and from where their people came from and went thru. I admit that I don’t live an observant lifestyle… and that is by my choice and influence of background. Where #18 and I disagree is that he or she can not declare me to be possibly just a good person and not a good Jew because isn’t that decision up to higher authority? With exception of a select few individuals and the Chabad movement people such as I are always being put down by those who view themeselves as superior Jews. Again I say that the final judgement will come from G-D and not from others…and will be based on my performance as a person and a Jew. I’ll take my chances.
TO: #21 – I see you can write, sad that you can’t read!
I did not offend ANY ba’al teshuvahs (that can read!) I said absolutely nothing negative about ba’alai teshuva. I MYSELF AM A BA”AL TESHUVA, and every sincere ba’al teshuva knows that you can’t go through a Torah life with the non-existent Jewish education you had from your non-frum days. If one comes from a frum home they go to yeshiva from kindergarten through high school (at least). If (LIKE ME!) one does not come from an observant home, then one either goes to yeshiva when they become frum, or goes to some sort of program or classes to learn HOW to live as a Torah Jew.
If YOU are shomer mitzvot, I don’t know what rock you are living under to not know what the “orthodox community” is doing. Among MANY, MANY, MANY other things… Yeshiva University has had for decades, a special course of study for ba’alei teshuva, the Aish Torah organization has a huge network both here and in Israel to teach Jews that want to learn about Torah Judaism. The Shofar network under the leadership of Rav Amnon Yiztchak Shlit”a travels the world and has distributed 100s of 1000s of free audio and video tapes to teach what authentic Judaism is about. There are countless yeshivas and programs around the world catering to those that did not come from orthodox homes and did not have a proper Jewish education.
From what you have written I don’t KNOW where you are at religiously, I do find it hard to believe that a shomer mitzvot person would write what you have written.
IF you are NOT observant, I would urge you to look at the intermarriage rate in the Jewish community you ARE a part of, and see where the future of that community is going. IF you are serious about your Jewishness, (whatever your age) you might want to contact one of sources I mentioned above.
#22 Respectfully, – I do not consider myself a “superior Jew” to use your term. I am simply a Jew who believes in G-d and in His Divinely given Torah. Consequently, I sincerely do my best to observe all the mitzvot in the Torah. You asked isn’t the decision as to whether or not you are a good Jew up to “a higher Authority”. Yes, of course it is, and He has already told you, and all of us, in His Torah, what HE requires to be a good Jew, – namely keeping His laws (NOT suggestions) that He gave us. I truly hope you will NOT “take your chances”. Taking your chances, you and your (present and/or future) children will lose.
I would urge you, as a good starting point, to visit the Aish.com website. There, you have NOTHING to lose, and a whole world for you and your family, to gain.
#24 & 25 – I can see why you would want to be anonymous. Your cocky and obnoxious attitude is not one to be proud of or want to put an identifiable name on. (And yes, many people DO know who my YWN screen name is).
The Torah teaches us that (with just a couple of exceptions) we do not know the reward for the various mitzvot, and that what might seem like a small, “light” or unimportant mitzvah to us, can be every bit as important as what seems like a very major, important one.
From your comment, you seem to say that doing chesed and giving tzedaka (certainly very important mitzvot) are MORE important than meticulous observance of the law of shatnez. Since both laws come from the same Torah, I wonder how you came to this conclusion? Did you have your own personal Divine revelation, or did you, in your superior wisdom just decide it on your own. In either case, perhaps you could be kind enough to tell the rest of us simple folk what other mitzvot HaSh-m doesn’t really care much about, and which we can be lax about.
#26 FYI I do regularly visit and receive e-mail updates from Aish.com and regularly visit other Orthodox run web sites…where may I add I comment when I feel the need to do so. I am truly sorry that I don’t have the opportunity to address you one on one so that you can truly judge me my my entire picture not just some posting on a web site. I again say I am proud of my background and who I am and proud of those that preceded me. Please note that I also have a huge distain for inter-marraige and done my best to point my children in the right direction. Let’s just agree to dis-agree. Happy Thangsgiving…it’s an American holiday.
Oh my…Not only was this incident shocking, but even more so are the responses in this blog! What a shameful example of achdus. What a state we are in! This is a wake up call to look at ourselves, not just those outwardly attacking us! We have a limited amount of control to change others’ hashkafas, attitudes and actions, but we have to be examples and a kiddush H-shem, where others would feel inspired by our way of living, not disgusted.
#28 (12786) You seem to be very decent and sincere fellow. You remind me in a way of my father, may he rest in peace, who, though not very observant, had a very strong Jewish identity.
I am happy to hear what you said about intermarriage, and pointing your children in the right direction. You must realize however that going out into the world, your children will be subjected to many influences other than yours. Undoubtedly a significant percentage of those influences will be very different than yours. Although I am sure your kids love and respect you, they will have their own minds, and your disdain for intermarriage may not be nearly enough to stop them when they meet and “fall in love” with some wonderful non-Jew.
The only thing that WILL stop them is a very thorough Jewish education that explains to them why THEY (themselves) should not want to intermarry.
Please understand, having come from a non-orthodox background myself, it is not at all my intention do demean you or your background. We all originated from the same grandfathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It has taken 2,000 years of living in the diaspora, 2,000 years of pogroms, inquisitions, and holocausts, 2,000 years of not just “kick the Jew” DAY, but “Kick the Jew CENTURIES, to have our people so far from our spiritual roots. I sense from what you have written that you are the kind of person that wants the best for your family, that you work hard to give them the best possible life. I beg of you to include in that goal, the best spiritual, the best Jewish life as well. Don’t dismiss it because you weren’t raised orthodox, and it all seems a bit foreign to you. I am sure you would not have to go back more than 3, or at the most 4 generations to find that your family was totally (orthodox) Torah observant. Think of the incredible joy it would bring to your ancestors in Heaven to see their great grandson return to their ways. Happy Thanksgiving.
A one day suspension? Not nearly enough. Should of been at least one week.
#31 (apprpriately) “anononymous” –
1) I’ll say it one last time… I NEVER chastised or said anything against the victims in this story. The objects of my criticism are individuals and “movements” in the Jewish community that should be providing Jewish kids with a strong Jewish identity and Jewish education, and are not doing so. That being the case, sometimes HaSh-m may send a goy to send a message or a wake-up call.
2) Yes, you did say mitzvot are not equal, and you indicated which in your superior opinion are more important than others. Should we assume from your comment that you will only get your clothes checked for shatnez if you can fit it into your very full schedule of doing acts of chesed? I’m sure Hillel was even busier than you doing chesed, so do you think he did not bother with a little thing like caring about shatnez? I can see you are a much greater talmid chacham than I am, so perhaps you can give me the quote where Hillel tells us that. I haven’t been able to locate it.
#23
it is disgusting that you think that the only way people can combat antisemitism is by becoming more like yourself. i’m sure arrogance will save us all. i bid you a good shabbos. i hope you’re not too lonely on your pedestal. 🙂