Does anybody know the incident recently happened in Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage Indian is pretty clever--taking an historically offensive label for Native Americans and applying it to a South Asian. The swastika, however, is in a different category. Like a burning cross. Unacceptable because the symbol invokes terror.

PP great minds thinks alike!

PP from prior page, I said this was a play on words, but you guys articulated it more thoroughly.

Agree the swastika thing is not clever or edgy. Kids need to know where the line is, and know not to cross it.

Yes I also agree on the swastika thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage + Indian is insensitive and in poor taste. Is the kid a racist, or deserve to be expelled? Not based on that username. Does it display poor judgement - yes.

Zero tolerance for hate. This child and whoever else did this should be expelled sorry. Lots of wonderful, progressive and kind children ready in the wings to take their place. They don’t belong their when they act like that.

In this case the boy is South Asian. So he thought he was being clever, when he was actually being crass and insensitive. I would give him a second chance and hope he learns from this. I can see how others may disagree though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage + Indian is insensitive and in poor taste. Is the kid a racist, or deserve to be expelled? Not based on that username. Does it display poor judgement - yes.

Zero tolerance for hate. This child and whoever else did this should be expelled sorry. Lots of wonderful, progressive and kind children ready in the wings to take their place. They don’t belong their when they act like that.

But the PPs are saying that it isn't actually hate speech. It's a play on historically derogatory terms by a clever kid of Indian descent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the moment, Bryan Gorman's original statement, where he says that several of the usernames were "racist towards Asians and Native Americans," looks ill-conceived and a rush to judgment, assuming that the username described above is one that he's referencing, and that the student was SE Asian.

It shows a superficial appreciation of racism and a lack of contextualism, like equating Bull Connor or George Wallace with some kids from Compton deciding to name their group "N.W.A."

And if he had not gotten the email out that night to the parent community, you would have been complaining that the administration was trying to bury the incident.

I think he reacted well with the information he had at the time. Obviously, new information is going to come to light in subsequent days. My DC says that everyone got the savageindian joke and yes, all thought that was very clever. It is in no way comparable to the swastika image - not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage + Indian is insensitive and in poor taste. Is the kid a racist, or deserve to be expelled? Not based on that username. Does it display poor judgement - yes.

Zero tolerance for hate. This child and whoever else did this should be expelled sorry. Lots of wonderful, progressive and kind children ready in the wings to take their place. They don’t belong their when they act like that.

So now we're building school communities of "wonderful, progressive and kind children," with those being your only qualifications? Lovely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage + Indian is insensitive and in poor taste. Is the kid a racist, or deserve to be expelled? Not based on that username. Does it display poor judgement - yes.

Zero tolerance for hate. This child and whoever else did this should be expelled sorry. Lots of wonderful, progressive and kind children ready in the wings to take their place. They don’t belong their when they act like that.

SavageIndian by a south asian student who is using a more modern use of the word 'savage' is not hate speech nor was it intended to be.

Swastika is another issue and yes, that kid or those kids, should be expelled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage Indian is pretty clever--taking an historically offensive label for Native Americans and applying it to a South Asian. The swastika, however, is in a different category. Like a burning cross. Unacceptable because the symbol invokes terror.

PP great minds thinks alike!

PP from prior page, I said this was a play on words, but you guys articulated it more thoroughly.

Agree the swastika thing is not clever or edgy. Kids need to know where the line is, and know not to cross it.

Yes I also agree on the swastika thing.

It's just stupidity on the kids' part. Require them to visit the Holocaust Museum more than once, have them write a 30-page term paper on the subject and have them present their conclusions and lessons learned at Quaker meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage Indian is pretty clever--taking an historically offensive label for Native Americans and applying it to a South Asian. The swastika, however, is in a different category. Like a burning cross. Unacceptable because the symbol invokes terror.

PP great minds thinks alike!

PP from prior page, I said this was a play on words, but you guys articulated it more thoroughly.

Agree the swastika thing is not clever or edgy. Kids need to know where the line is, and know not to cross it.

Yes I also agree on the swastika thing.

It's just stupidity on the kids' part. Require them to visit the Holocaust Museum more than once, have them write a 30-page term paper on the subject and have them present their conclusions and lessons learned at Quaker meeting.

I think the Administration would need more information about who it was, why they did it etc. IMO, high school kids in this day and age should be mature and educated enough to know better. I don't think your solution is enough of a punishment for what they did. Consider 1) using hateful symbolism knowingly in a public environment 2) the disrespect it showed towards the student presenters and 3) the timing of this happening and the news filtering out literally as newly admitted students are making their final school choices for the fall. This goes well beyond just 'stupidity' as it could have a material and negative impact on the school.

[Anonymous]

It’s just stupidity on the kids' part. Require them to visit the Holocaust Museum more than once, have them write a 30-page term paper on the subject and have them present their conclusions and lessons learned at Quaker meeting.

Sidwell parent posting. I disagree. Perhaps I’d have more sympathy if it’s one young kid who drew one swastika on a notebook, not really grasping the significance of what he was doing. That kid would feel terrible and come forward to admit his guilt and try to explain he did not mean anything by it. But it sounds like this is the third incident and it was incredibly public. Sidwell definitely teaches these kids about respecting others, so this was a knowing and intentional act. Unless there’s some mitigating circumstance we aren’t seeing, this kid should be going to the Holocaust museum and writing apologies, not from Sidwell, but instead while on spring break from his new school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage + Indian is definitely in poor taste. I hope this kid learns this.

Sounds like people have incorrectly assumed that the word Indian which may still be an acceptable way to describe people from South East Asia was intended as a derogatory term for the indigenous people of the Americas.

It’s a clever Pun in movies. Guess not for anon names for an online survey done real-time in the school auditorium. Oops!

With the amount of SFS parents in media/journalism you’d think someone would have caught the FCC curse word delay bedorw it went live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage Indian is pretty clever--taking an historically offensive label for Native Americans and applying it to a South Asian. The swastika, however, is in a different category. Like a burning cross. Unacceptable because the symbol invokes terror.

PP great minds thinks alike!

PP from prior page, I said this was a play on words, but you guys articulated it more thoroughly.

Agree the swastika thing is not clever or edgy. Kids need to know where the line is, and know not to cross it.

Yes I also agree on the swastika thing.

It's just stupidity on the kids' part. Require them to visit the Holocaust Museum more than once, have them write a 30-page term paper on the subject and have them present their conclusions and lessons learned at Quaker meeting.

I think the Administration would need more information about who it was, why they did it etc. IMO, high school kids in this day and age should be mature and educated enough to know better. I don't think your solution is enough of a punishment for what they did. Consider 1) using hateful symbolism knowingly in a public environment 2) the disrespect it showed towards the student presenters and 3) the timing of this happening and the news filtering out literally as newly admitted students are making their final school choices for the fall. This goes well beyond just 'stupidity' as it could have a material and negative impact on the school.

That should not be a factor in determining how the school disciplines these kids. If yield management is taken into consideration, then we're saying what really matters is optics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It’s just stupidity on the kids' part. Require them to visit the Holocaust Museum more than once, have them write a 30-page term paper on the subject and have them present their conclusions and lessons learned at Quaker meeting.

Sidwell parent posting. I disagree. Perhaps I’d have more sympathy if it’s one young kid who drew one swastika on a notebook, not really grasping the significance of what he was doing. That kid would feel terrible and come forward to admit his guilt and try to explain he did not mean anything by it. But it sounds like this is the third incident and it was incredibly public. Sidwell definitely teaches these kids about respecting others, so this was a knowing and intentional act. Unless there’s some mitigating circumstance we aren’t seeing, this kid should be going to the Holocaust museum and writing apologies, not from Sidwell, but instead while on spring break from his new school.

They should have known better. Zero tolerance..bye!!! Let this serve as an example to the next “clever” kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage Indian is pretty clever--taking an historically offensive label for Native Americans and applying it to a South Asian. The swastika, however, is in a different category. Like a burning cross. Unacceptable because the symbol invokes terror.

PP great minds thinks alike!

PP from prior page, I said this was a play on words, but you guys articulated it more thoroughly.

Agree the swastika thing is not clever or edgy. Kids need to know where the line is, and know not to cross it.

Yes I also agree on the swastika thing.

It's just stupidity on the kids' part. Require them to visit the Holocaust Museum more than once, have them write a 30-page term paper on the subject and have them present their conclusions and lessons learned at Quaker meeting.

visit the Holocaust Museum..really???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Savage + Indian is definitely in poor taste. I hope this kid learns this.

Sounds like people have incorrectly assumed that the word Indian which may still be an acceptable way to describe people from South East Asia was intended as a derogatory term for the indigenous people of the Americas.

It’s a clever Pun in movies. Guess not for anon names for an online survey done real-time in the school auditorium. Oops!

With the amount of SFS parents in media/journalism you’d think someone would have caught the FCC curse word delay bedorw it went live.

It was a student presentation using a commonly used app.

[Anonymous]

Parents -- are your kids on a Discord server? Do you even know what they are?

Kids go on Discord hang out online with other gamers, but there's a constant undercurrent of toxic stuff on the platform, not to mention all the same Russian bot operations ginning up divisive content.

There are folks on these servers and groups called edge lords; they put out things like the student(s) did at Sidwell to provoke, as a joke and otherwise prove themselves to be 'edgy' or cool.

These people probably aren't going to join the Klan, but they really don't see what is wrong about hate speech and if called out tend to say something like "I'm sorry if I offended you, but no matter what I say someone will be offended...so why bother trying."