No High School Halloween for Hitler

A Brooklyn high school student was reprimanded by school officials for coming to school in a Hitler costume. The Post reports that 16 year old Walter Pertyk was taken out of his second period English class at Leon M. Goldstein High School (named after a "prominent Jewish educator") over his Halloween garb.

"Excuse me, fuhrer, can I talk to you for a minute?" is how Petryk recalled the dean, Paul Puglia, summoning him out of class.

Puglia then allegedly asked, "Are you out of your mind, you idiot?" and ordered him to the office with, "Consider yourself my prisoner of war."

Pertyk said he understood the concerns of administrators that faculty members had lost relatives in the Holocaust. But he maintained the costume was a parody protected under his right to free expression, and refused to take it off.

"I figured somebody would say something eventually, but I really do believe that people have a right to express themselves," said Petryk, an aspiring comedy writer who counts Mel Brooks, "Weird Al" Yankovic and the Monty Python cast among his idols.

Wow, Dean Puglia is pretty funny. And clearly Pertyk knew he would push buttons, since he dressed as Charlie Chaplin on the subway and on the way to school. But his parents supported his costume. Stepfather Howard Bloom, who lost relatives during the Holocaust, said, "If he had wanted to advocate my genocide, I wouldn't have allowed [the costume]. That wasn't the spirit in which he was doing this at all. He was doing it in the spirit of Monty Python and Mel Brooks." We suppose being "Young Frankenstein" for Halloween was too obvious.

It sounds typical of high school behavior - the desire to provoke and spend the time to grow out a mini-mustache for a Halloween costume. Pertyk says his classmates liked his getup (when he arrived to first period, "everybody was laughing"), but other students said they understood the faculty's reaction. The Department of Education said that the school followed proper procedures. We wonder if the school would have let people dressed as Saddam, Stalin, or Mao get away with those costumes.

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By Jen Chung in News on November 1, 2006 9:25 AM

Comments [rss]

errol

seriously no one should take this article seriously i went to skool with walter and this never happened, Puglia never sed any of that and it was in the hallway that he was stopped. The initial problem was that he would offend ppl the staff didnt have much problems with the costume, and the newspaper didnt noe till the 3days later. The media had to make the story more interesting in order to sell papers. As far as punishment went, he didnt recieve any, only problem was that halloween was now canceld as a dress up day

Idi Amin

Give the kid a break. It's not like he was throwing any little jewish kids into the cafeteria oven.

Idi Amin

Give the kid a break. It is not like he was throwing any little jewish kids into the cafeteria oven.

Annom.

What incerdible emotion a costume brings about. Someone asked if those comedians, monty python, etc. ever did skits about Hitler? YES, Hilter in england, great skit. The fact is THAT is comedy. Take a string of things proportional, and throw one thing way out of wack. Do comedians offend? Yes, of course, thats thier purpose. Imagine dressing like bush and visting just about 75% of the globe, someone might see it as funny, but the guy would probably get a severe beating, at least. The point is it's a matter of perspective. Everything people do these days offends someone. At least while some people are getting offended, others can laugh.

TinnyRay

Here's a Halloween costume with an amazing philsophical exercise: Go to your government school (socialist school) in a costume of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and for the entire evening never say the word "Nazi." Introduce yourself to everyone thusly "Hi, I'm with the National Socialist German Workers' Party." If anyone asks "What is your costume?" answer "The National Socialist German Workers' Party." On your costume's right chest/pocket have the phrase "National Socialist German Workers' Party" but no mention of the word "Nazi" anywhere. If someone points to the label and says "what does that mean?" answer "that is my costume." If someone says "Is your costume that of a Nazi?" answer "I'd prefer you say 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' or simply 'National Socialist.'" If anyone uses the word "Nazi," say "The National Socialist German Worker's Party never referred to themselves as 'Nazis,' they referred to themselves as 'National Socialists.'" If anyone uses the word "fascist," say "The National Socialist German Worker's Party never referred to themselves as 'fascists,' they referred to themselves as 'National Socialists.'" You will be amazed at how few people know of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. You will also be amazed that the people who do know are very unhappy to see or hear the full phrase mentioned. You might also be amazed at how hard it is to not say "Nazi." Learn more about theselective amnesia and media misinformation about the horrid National Socialist German Workers' Party. Of course, they will also know nothing about the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million dead under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million dead under the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSGWP). That is why you can go as Stalin or Mao and no one will care. In fact no one will even know who you are. But you will be persecuted in the socialist school if you wear the National Socialist costume after you walk past the school's high chain-link fences, past the assembly-line searches of students, past the metal detectors, the hand-wanding, and the x-rays of purses and backpacks, past the video surveillance cameras in the hallways, past the police dogs sniffing lockers and youngsters, and finally past all the locked doors and into the classroom, where you can wear it during the robotic chanting of the Pledge of Allegiance to the USA's growing police state, and later when you are asked for a urine sample for mandatory drug testing. If you perform the straight-arm salute during the robotic chanting of the Pledge, no one will realize that it used to be the actual early salute of the Pledge 3 decades before the NSGWP existed, and that the Pledge was the origin of the straight-arm salute of the NSGWP and was written by a self-proclaimed national socialist in the USA 3 decades before the NSGWP existed.

ethos

#61,

Really good points, but I still don't buy that this kid was totally innocent/ignorant of what he was doing, and I think on some level he should be taken to task for it.

Brian B

Why does it matter if he is jewish or not? I don't see why being a member of a group entitles you to special or extended right to free speech. That in and of itself is discrimination. The idea that only certain people are allowed to say certain things is another way to divide ourselves.

I am ashamed of the ADL and their vengeful attack against a 16 year old kid, as if he is the cause of anti-semitism or even indicative of it. Is the ADL trying to get people to never acknowledge Hitler existed? Or trying to control all images of Hitler and similar figures?

As a teacher, i think his costume would have been a great opportunity for a jumping off point for any number of class lessons and discussions in history, literature, social studies, and current events: for a class on WWII, the Holocaust, and Hitler, and free speech. We could discuss why some people would find it offensive based on history, the holocaust and current events, the satire aspect by discussing the represantions of jews for satire/parody in WWII. We could discuss free speech rights and the battles over them.

Suffice to say that instantly condemning anyone who does something offensive, especially as a child, does nothing to help our society. Especially at a time when our civil liberties are being eroded by the current administration.

Though i feel mentioning this invalidates much of my arguments, i would like to point out that i am a practiing jew. Challah!

bobloo

It wasn't anything offensive he was just being a kid and having fun. Not to make fun of the the events that happened to the Jews

Mac

I can't believe how the media's crucifying this poor kid... I'm sure he didn't mean to dress like Hitler. Maybe he was just drunk at the time!

MAC

I am shocked how the media is crucifying this poor kid! I'm sure he didn't really mean to dress like Hitler... he was probably just drunk at the time, and we all know how that makes you do things you normally wouldn't do... ;)

thiskidsadick

Honestly, this kid is a pussy. He knew it was wrong, which is why he covered it up with the Charlie Chaplin costume on the way to school. If he felt it was okay, he wouldn't have needed a disguise. I wonder how soon after he got called on it did he drop the dime to the Post.

peter

i completly agree with #55 it is a halloween costume that is all. if he wore it on a regular day i can understand calling it disruptive or inapropriate or w.e but it is halloween. if a person running around in a scream constume doesnt bother anybody what makes this guy anyworse. also i feal that if someone was to get offended by the constume they should have taken that up with him but from what a read all the kids in the class found it ammusing hence the spirit of halloween. I'm sure there must have been at least 1 jewish kid in that class. furthoremore im jewish and it doesnt bother me because he made his intentions very clear that he was not doing it to be prejudice but for humor. i think it is absolutly fine what he did and what the dean did; kicking him out of school had no grounds and was completly wrong.

Not Amused

So the kid dressed up as Hitler. Big deal, It was a costume for halloween . Get a f*cking grip people ! Was he disturbing class with the outfit ? No. It's not like he was wearing this everyday . Talk about overreacting .

J

Freedom of expression is not absolute (see Schneck v US, 1919; Feiner v NY, Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969). And what exactly was the young man expressing? If he was aiming for satire, it was lost on his audience comprised of young people ranging in emotional and intellectual maturity that did not choose to participate in the satire (unlike ticket buyers that purchase the messages conveyed by Sasha Baron Cohen and Mel Brooks). Further, the young man put both himself at risk as well as others and the school was justified in its actions. I am certain that the school would have done the same if a student appeared as a Klansman or Stalin. Recall also, NYC fired off duty police officers for wearing blackface and re-enacting a hate crime. The question you may wish to ask is: Is a free society ever justified in restricting civil liberties?

some years ago.

AT

Maybe this kid should just dress up as a superhero next time. I hear Captain Underpants is popular...

ed_Extinct

#49: *While I think the costume is in bad taste, what he did wasn't inherently wrong and he was exercising his freedom of speech in a way that was safe for him.*

Please read the other comments and or do some research before posting "constitutional rights" rhetoric.

I do believe in constitutonal rights without a doubt, but when they're not valid it's a hard argument to follow. Eg. If you're arrested and have no ID, there's no constitutional right that says you are entitled to an attorney. No ID no counsel. A good example of this were the arrests made during the RNC of 2004.

Eryximachus

Oh yeah, sure. They have 5,709,329 names of people killed. A number like that is a precise count, not an estimate.

Lots of Jews died. But they don't know how many to that level of accuracy. Millions died. That is really all that can be said.

g

Alert the presses! Mihow is dropping out of the discussion. Thank you for letting us know.

otherobject

While I think the costume is in bad taste, what he did wasn't inherently wrong and he was exercising his freedom of speech in a way that was safe for him. For those who don't know much about film history, Charlie Chaplin did a movie called "The Great Dictator" that was a satire of Hitler and the Nazis. For the student to link his Hitler costume with Chaplin was very smart because it brought back the satire to the whole situation. That's how it's in the vein of Mel Brooks and Monty Python. Honestly, I'd worry for that school because they are going to go through an expensive lawsuit that they will not win.

ed_Extinct

READING COMPREHENSION!

I didn't say the holocaust alone. I said World War II, which is the direct responsibility of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Actually, I underestimated the total deaths in WWII (including holocaust)

here's a few figures:

Military Deaths-Total: 24,500,000

Civilian Deaths-Total: 32,330,000

Holocaust (Jews)-Total: 5,800,000

Total deaths during WWII: 62,500,000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

I would say, dressing as Adolf Hitler is bad taste and disrupts the educational process of any institution, public or private. It also does not fall under any constitutional right in a public school, i.e. institution.