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Dec. 15, 2006
Inter-school scuffle
Jewish students under attack from neighbors.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
Two teens at Eric Hamber Secondary School have been suspended after
several incidents of anti-Semitism directed at students from King
David High School.
On Nov. 9, according to KDHS principal Perry Seidelman, a couple
of his students were walking towards Oakridge Centre and "one
or two of these guys [from Hamber] who were on the bus were taunting
them from the bus and one of them drew a swastika on the window."
Seidelman said there was a further incident of "taunting back
and forth between these kids" the following day.
On Dec. 1, one of the King David students was assaulted by the same
boys from Hamber, as he waited in line at the Oakridge food court.
"He [the King David student] was standing in the line and one
of them punched him," said Seidelman. "He tried to defend
himself and one other kid, I think, joined, so there were two of
them punching him, as far as I know.
"They were at the school a few minutes before, these boys.
There's a bus stop on 41st Avenue, right next to our school, and
it's not very far away from the front door of the school. There
was still lots of snow on the ground and these kids from Hamber
were throwing some snowballs. I don't know what they were saying
to each other, but I know that [our student] said that they were
saying some things and he tells me that he was telling them to go
away. Then after that, the kids from Hamber starting walking towards
Oakridge, and they all ended up in the same place, the food fair.
[The King David student] was standing at that particular spot to
get some food and this kid came up to him and said something and
another kid said, 'Is this the Jew?' and then punched him."
The boy who was assaulted, a Grade 10 student at King David, suffered
only minor cuts and bruises, according to Seidelman.
However, the boy's father expressed alarm at the incident.
"He was not expecting this kind of situation," said the
father. "He was attacked by surprise, I would say. At all times,
he tried to avoid getting into aggression, fighting, and he told
these guys, I don't want to fight. They tried to push him outside
the mall, where there were other guys waiting for him. The situation
was very hard for him – he's very active now and doing all
of his activities and he's not showing [many] post-traumatic effects.
He's very good, he's very strong and he's very nice as well. He's
doing all his activities as usual but this is touching his life
and our lives for life."
The teens responsible for the assault are both Asian, which surprised
the victim's father. "I have no idea of any friction between
the Jewish community and the Asian community," he said. "It
absolutely caught my attention - why Asian kids are going and attacking
and insulting Jews. It's very, very strange."
Hamber principal Diane Turner stressed that the two students who
had been suspended were not representative of the student body.
"The rest of the community here is, if you were to walk into
this school, you would get an incredible feeling of caring and thoughtfulness
and kindness from the majority of the people in this school,"
Turner said in an interview. "They [the other students at the
school] are very upset and very disappointed in these boys and their
behavior. These boys, this is not the first time that their behavior
has been disrespectful and inappropriate."
The boys, she said, had been called in for a lengthy meeting with
both herself and vice-principal Jack Bailey. "We talked about
the whole issue of intolerance and racism," said Turner. "We
used the examples of wars in the world, based on all kinds of prejudice
and we talked about some of the social studies lessons that they
had learned. We talked quite openly – we had a good dialogue
about what some of the implications of such intolerance and negativity
could be in our culture. We talked about our school code of conduct,
which is based on the word 'respect.' There's a lot of lessons within
that code of conduct and a lot of lessons within our social responsibility
goals that we've been working on in our schools. It's sad that two
boys don't get it."
She noted that one of the boys in particular comes from a very religious
family, who were, she said, "absolutely appalled" by his
behavior.
The pair, who will now be transferred to another school, alleged
that the King David students had also insulted them. "They
did say that there were names going back and forth," said Turner.
"I think there's denial [from the King David students], but
our boys were pretty clear that they were going back and forth."
"Our kids deny it," said Seidelman of the allegation.
"Our kids are not angels, but I really have no way of knowing
that it's true. If it is true, then apparently it would be in response,
because I think these kids from Hamber started it. If that's the
case though, then obviously it raised it a little."
Seidelman said he was satisfied with the way Hamber staff and the
Vancouver Police handled the situation and said he saw no elevated
security risk to his students.
"Now that the [Hamber] boys are removed, it's definitely much
less of an issue," he said. "Even if they were not removed,
I'm not unhappy with the security here. Since the episode in Seattle
[where Seattle federation staff were shot], we've upped our security
here. We now have a full-time security guard, who's not just a rent-a-cop,
he's trained in Israel. He used to do security at Lod airport. He's
vigilant, he knows who those kids are and he's watching for them
all the time."
The principals at both schools asserted that they would be speaking
further with their students about tolerance issues. Seidelman said
he had already held a short assembly at King David, "partly
to tell the kids not to be vigilantes, but also to be careful."
The father of the assaulted boy, though he applauded the way the
incidents were handled, believes this is a warning to the Jewish
community as a whole and said he would be seeking the advice of
other parents and community members.
"It's an alarming incident not only for me," he said.
"I think it's a call for attention from the school authorities
and the community itself." He advocated "Prevention, prevention,
prevention. Avoidance in terms of conflict, but we have to be strong."
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