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.
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.