A mother fed up with what she called a school's insensitivity after she reported that someone had painted a “four-inch” swastika on her son’s desk, pulled him out of the school. And, according to the mother, that was just the tip of the iceberg, given what she called “meager punishment” when the same student called her son the N-word weeks earlier.
“I am fearful for me and my son,” Pearl Phillips told the Amsterdam News in an interview. Her son, Jamal Young, is 10 years old and loves to play basketball. According to Phillips, the student who painted the hate symbol is 13 years old. “I have no idea of his family background, but I believe there is something going on there that is not right,” she added.
A story in the Staten Island Advance quoted a representative of MLM Public Relations, as saying that the student who painted the swastika declared that he “was a Nazi.” The story also said that the school’s punishment of the student: “consisting of after-school detentions, written or verbal apologies, and research assignments on the Holocaust or on the plight of African-Americans.”
“I haven't received any apologies from anyone,” declared Phillips. “The school, St. John's Lutheran School in the Graniteville section of Staten Island, has yet to admit to me about the swastika.”
A representative of MLM Public Relations told the Amsterdam News that a letter was sent “last week,” but they do not know how it was sent.
Ed Josey, president of Staten Island’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said that his group would be holding a meeting at AmNews press time. “The school fell short in protecting this young man,” Josey said. He said that the NAACP would probably engage in letter writing and placing a statement in the local paper. “I would recommend that the school engage in some sort of sensitivity training,” Josey said.
“I am still afraid for my son – afraid for both of us, but after the shooting in Queens Saturday night, I know I have to be brave and speak up. That is why I am talking to the Amsterdam News,” stated Phillips. “I want people to know that these incidents are not isolated.”
Jamal said that he, “just wanted to forget that it had happened.”
