Kick-A-Ginger Day Draws Light Punishment

Just before Thanksgiving, I lightly mentioned Kick-A-Ginger day. In case you missed it, some kids at a California middle school used Facebook to organize a day of beating on redheaded children like they were redheaded step-children.
Parents of children at a Calabasas middle school were understandably horrified when they learned that 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds were running around hitting gingers.
Apparently, the attackers have been identified. The L.A. Times reports:

In Calabasas, an affluent community northwest of Los Angeles, school officials have identified nine children believed to be responsible for the assaults but their investigation is continuing. Eleven victims have come forward.

But will their punishment be tough enough? The school has already taken one (weak) response, but some parents want more.
Details after the jump.


Calabasas middle school had some great tolerance exercises after the Thanksgiving break:

On the first school day after Thanksgiving break, principal Kimmarie Taylor cautioned students on the public address system to be mindful of their responses to reporters and news crews who had gathered on campus. At an assembly earlier, she attempted to demonstrate the irreversible consequences of ill-thought-out actions by having students try to put toothpaste back into a tube using toothpicks. Later, they wrote essays about making the school a better place.
“This was out of left field for us,” said Taylor, pointing out that the students under investigation had not been in trouble before. Some were given five-day suspensions — the maximum allowed under state education rules — and had already written letters of apology to the victims, she said.
“They’re all good kids,” she said. “They just made a very bad choice.”

Guys in my middle school used to beat the crap out of redheaded children all the time. It was no big deal.
Seriously though, is it really that big a deal that some redheaded kids were picked on? Is this a hate crime now? Do freckles put you in a protected class? I mean, it’s not like these kids were beaten within an inch of their life. They got picked on in school. It happens. I used to get picked on for “talking white.” I used to get picked on for being clumsy. I got beat up with a Nintendo cartridge once because I liked to run my mouth when winning Nintendo games.
Kids get picked on all the time.
Parents, of course, think that this is a very big deal and want harsh punishments for the attackers:

While students had mixed opinions about the significance of the incident, parents who spoke to The Times Monday were not at all ambivalent.
“They should be very, very harsh with the punishment,” said Ruthie Stockfish, who was dropping off her daughter Ella’s clarinet. “My daughter has light-brown hair. She’s cute. Is tomorrow going to be cute-kid-hitting day?”

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No. But tomorrow might be kick-the-kid-whose-mom-calls-her-cute-in-the-L.A. Times day. If parents don’t want their kids to get picked on, they should make them learn Karate. Otherwise, school is one endless “sweep the leg” snuf film.
Hey, at least nobody is blaming South Park for oppressing the gingers.
Oh, sorry, I forgot I lived in America — the land where television can be blamed for anything:

South Park’s writers were unavailable for comment, said a representative from the show. But the show is rated for “Mature Audiences Only.” Shows with such ratings may have content “unsuitable for children under 17,” according to Federal Communications Commission guidelines. …
“Sometimes TV producers, even those wanting to represent peaceful outcomes, do negative modeling,” said Ron Slaby, senior scientist at the Education Development Center and the Center on Media and Child Health. “When you show hateful adversarial behavior or even concepts, the effect may be most pronounced with those who have the least resilience against it.”
The annual kick-a-ginger event has brought angry criticism from people who feel the show’s producers should have known better. A judge in Calgary, Canada, where 13 high school students swarmed a red-haired boy in a locker room, called the show “a vulgar, socially irreverent program that contributes nothing to society.”

Sounds like Judge Calgary didn’t get the joke. I guess he has more in common with ginger beating children then he thinks.
School holds tolerance seminar as 3 boys are arrested in ‘ginger’ attacks [L.A. Times]

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