Beat the Jew (update)

It's a week after the game (formally known as Beat the Jews) came to light: one volunteer is the Jew, the other participants are the Nazis. The Jew takes off running and the Nazis jump into their cars and try to find him. Not just the obvious racial/ethnic cleansing aspect of this activity is reprehensible, but the fact that adrenalin-filled high school kids are jumping into their cars and tearing off down a major thoroughfare, speeding, weaving in and out of lanes, running red lights -- while trying to catch the Jew.

Surprisingly enough, the community outrage has been muted; perhaps it would have been stronger had the Nazis driving the vehicles been involved in an accident during the chase, especially if someone had been maimed or killed. Regardless, the punishment phase landed right in the middle of the school district and the students involved have been suspended, which means some of them will miss graduation. The reasoning behind the district's actions is that the students were on-campus when the game began. The 18-year-old student who let the cat out of the bag fears for his life: he has not left his home since the story broke because he has literally been threatened with death for ratting out the game-players.

The backstory includes that approximately 70 (yes, that is 7-0) students were involved in this scenario via FaceBook. They thought it hilarious and couldn't wait for the games to begin. Had it stayed in the electronic world, the school district may have been able to avoid involvement, but the participating students brought it onto campus when the student parking lot became the point of origination for the chase. Thankfully for the parents, they no longer have to figure out what the hell to do about their children's actions because their focus is now on a lawsuit filed against the school district for denying their children participation in graduation.

If we do not learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it; if we do not do our job as parents during our children's formative years, our children are given permission to act with impunity when they are older. Rather than holding the school district accountable for "ruining" their children's lives by denying them participation in graduation vis a vis the suspensions for their reprehensible actions, perhaps the parents could be more proactive. How about taking control of the car keys, selling the vehicles and putting the proceeds into a college fund, deleting the FaceBook accounts, and shutting down the computers for the summer as a starting point. The parents could organize a family field trip to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, as well as a sober on-site visit to the memorial park that is within a couple of miles of their children's high school parking lot!

And then there needs to be some serious conversation: really serious conversation.