Brooklyn, NY – A Brooklyn high school student caused a stir when he showed up for class dressed as Adolph Hitler for Halloween.
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Walter Petryk, 16, defended his costume, insisting it was a satire of the Nazi dictator.
But some students and officials at Leon M. Goldstein High School were not impressed.
School administrators ordered the junior honors student to remove his beige coat bearing a red swastika armband or possibly face spending the day in the office.
Petryk refused, saying his parody was protected by his right to freedom of expression.
Petryk’s stepfather, Howard Bloom, who is Jewish and lost relatives during the Nazi genocide, said that he was initially “very disturbed” by the costume but nonetheless defended his stepson’s rights. “If he had wanted to advocate my genocide, I wouldn’t have allowed” the costume, Bloom said. “That wasn’t the spirit in which he was doing this at all.”
In order to avoid a disruption on the way to school, Petryk disguised his Hitler getup as a costume of Charlie Chaplin, adding a bowler hat and cane.
The city’s Department of Education discipline code allows for the removal of students from class if they wear clothing that causes a disruption.
ah, but the kid knew it would cause a reaction, therefore, he walked to school disguised as charlie chaplin….he should have stayed as charlie
My problem is with the parents. In the Daily News article the words the father said was, “I don’t want to censor my son” Isn’t that a parents job? Isn’t that the way kids learn–we teach them from right and wrong?
I hate to say it but there are two issues here. I think the parents need to realize they did not educate their kid properly. I cannot tell if the mother is even a yehudi so if she isnt the stepfather should realize he is an idiot for marrying someone who is not a yehudi (you expect the shaygitz kid to love yehudim suddenly?).
If the mom is a yehudi, i hope she realizes – but probably not – that she really messed up with this kid by not teaching him right and wrong.