# So a kid showed up at school today dressed as Hitler... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795 "2009-10-31T00:56:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/101 "2009-10-31T21:58:20Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Unsurprisingly, you’re wrong. Your argument is akin to saying, “If the principal is carrying a $20 bill with a picture of a mass-murderer in his pocket, he has no grounds on which to object to a kid wearing a ‘Kill Injuns’ t-shirt.” It’s a ridiculous, stupid, and “oh, look at me, what a brave intellectual maverick!” argument I am. Sarah Palin wouldn’t use it, it’s so dumb. Right, you’ve clearly got a lot of experience with making up unique criteria to justify any proposition. I never said anything about being an intellectual Maverick. But it is quite obvious that you’re willing to excuse Che for being a leftist and no other reason. Otherwise why would you have even brought Sarah Palin into this? ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/102 "2009-10-31T22:07:07Z")
Oboy. At this time I would like to officially change my stance to utter condemation of both the kid and his choice of costume. Anything to get away from this team. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/103 "2009-10-31T22:34:59Z")
> [@Quasimodal](#): > > The title pretty much sums it up. He was in full dress complete with moustache and swastika. Obviously dressed up for Halloween. He is about 14 years old. My question is how would you respond as a: > > 1. Teacher > > 2. Principal > > 3. Parent who had learned about this. > > I will let you know how my friend (the teacher) was affected by this and her reaction, but I’m curious about how other people would deal with the situation. I’d have no issue assuming other kids dressed up… just as I’d have no issue with a kid dressed as Pol Pot, Stalin, Idi Amin or any other tyrant. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/104 "2009-10-31T22:37:19Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > If he did that at my HS, the minimum punishment he’d get would be he’d be sent home to change and get an absence, and then probably have to write an apology/do an essay on WWII and the Holocaust, and perhaps if they REALLY were strict they may add more detention. > > But nothing that’d go on a permanent record. > Also, he may get his ass kicked if he wasn’t a senior or a junior doing this and those guys saw him. Or the very minimum, stuffed in a Trash Can. So they would do the same if he came dressed as Pol Pot… having to write on the Cambodian genocide? ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/105 "2009-10-31T22:38:39Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I would have bounced him out of my classroom in a picosecond. Off to the Vice-Principal with a class suspension of 3 days, with a call for a school suspension of at least a week. Then a call to his parents for an ass-chewing. Would you do the same for Pol Pot, Stalin, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and others? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/106 "2009-10-31T22:49:02Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > The parents deserve an ass-chewing, maybe a search warrant to see how many Nazi flags are in their living room. Sick, sick, sick. - A search warrant? \* A search warrant _“to see how many Nazi flags are in their living room?”_ I think you really need to learn more about the laws of this country. Assuming you are American, if you wrote this in earnest, you really have no clue what the concept of free speech is about. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/107 "2009-10-31T22:52:28Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > The parents deserve an ass-chewing, maybe a search warrant to see how many Nazi flags are in their living room. Sick, sick, sick. Whoa! I have an Iranian and North Korean flag in my office… doesn’t make me evil. A search warrant??? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/108 "2009-10-31T23:11:11Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > Would you do the same for Pol Pot, Stalin, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and others? Nobody would recognize Pol Pot even with a sign, so no. Ditto Stalin. Ditto Saddam. Idi Amin would get the kid bounced for “blackface,” since there are a grand total of very few black families here, and in my experience none of their kids are that stupid. My town is a hot-bed for supremacists and associated assholes, so my zero tolerance stance is directed primarily at them. I also have a name that makes me rather sensitive to Nazi jokes. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/109 "2009-10-31T23:14:07Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > So they would do the same if he came dressed as Pol Pot… having to write on the Cambodian genocide? Nope. Not unless he was being disruptive or offending someone. Or if he came in and had made slanty-eyed comments or used tape or something like that to slant his eyes as part of the costume- then yes, he’d get the same treatment sans essay and probably more detention and a talking to and such. Or more likely what would happen: nothing would happen unless someone said something to him or bothered/ attacked him for what he was wearing, and then school would just finally release a policy saying “please don’t dress up like offensive figures from history” or some thing like that. Actually the likeliest scenario I just realized: The school would just ban costumes as school on Halloween. And then everyone else would just be pissed at the idiot that ruined their one moment of fun. THAT’S what my school would do 100%. :smack:. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/110 "2009-10-31T23:21:14Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Nobody would recognize Pol Pot even with a sign, so no. Ditto Stalin. Ditto Saddam. Idi Amin would get the kid bounced for “blackface,” since there are a grand total of very few black families here, and in my experience none of their kids are that stupid. My town is a hot-bed for supremacists and associated assholes, so my zero tolerance stance is directed primarily at them. I also have a name that makes me rather sensitive to Nazi jokes. Nobody would recognize Saddam or Stalin? Wow - what kind of education do we have? How about Osama bin Laden? ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/111 "2009-10-31T23:22:36Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > Actually the likeliest scenario I just realized: The school would just ban costumes as school on Halloween. And then everyone else would just be pissed at the idiot that ruined their one moment of fun. > THAT’S what my school would do 100%. :smack:. Yup - that seems like a modern reaction to this sort of thing. Morons. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/112 "2009-10-31T23:28:54Z")
If a kid can dress up as Satan, then a kid can dress up as Hitler. Seems clear-cut enough to me. Satan still beats Hitler in the evil olympics. (We can disagree on whether there actually is a Satan who lives in a place called Hell, but there’s no question that Satan represents the personification of evil and the antithesis of everything good.) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Rosetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Green\_Rosetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Rosetta)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/113 "2009-10-31T23:31:50Z")
If I were the teacher, I’d pull the kid aside and tell him that some other students may find that very offensive, and ask him please to change. I think most schools that allow for dressing up on Halloween probably have a rule about keeping costumes ‘appropriate’, probably so as to avoid 14 year old girls wearing their sexy cheerleader outfits during school hours, so I might invoke that rule, because I think it really is an inappropriate thing to wear. There may be kids in the classroom who have family members that narrowly avoided the Holocaust. I feel the same way about dressing as Idi Amin or Pol Pot or any other mass murderer- it just isn’t in good taste. There are a million and one other, much more creative, costume ideas aside from one that sounds to me like it was clearly done for shock value. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/114 "2009-10-31T23:40:08Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Nobody would recognize Pol Pot even with a sign, so no. Ditto Stalin. Ditto Saddam. You’re seriously saying a good Saddam Hussein costume wouldn’t be recognized? I very much doubt that. A well-executed Stalin costume would probably be recognizable by a lot of folks, too. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/115 "2009-10-31T23:50:05Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > My kids dress as nympho-vampire-alien-extraterrestrial-bloodsucking-sluts but that’s because that’s what we are. So, **mswas** , how are _you_ doin’? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/116 "2009-11-01T00:18:57Z")
I don’t think the comparisons being made are relevant. First, clearly, fantasy monsters (vampires, satan, etc) are not relevant (“If you can dress as satan, you can dress as Hitler”? Sorry, that’s just totally irrelevant.) The comparisons to costumes of Pol Pot, Hirohito, Staliln, Saddam Hussein, Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper – those are also not relevant. Yes, they did unspeakable things, but no one is supporting them now. Thye’re dead and far away. There’s not a lot of pro-Stalinists around anymore, there’s no neo-Pol Pot movement, I haven’t seen any Mansonites in the news recently, and the “Jack the Ripper was unjustly accused” society hasn’t got a large following. But Hitler is still worshipped, there are plenty of neo-Nazis around calling for murdering Jews and blacks and restoring racial purity, and it’s (IMHO) vastly inappropriate for a Halloween costume. Now, if it’s made into fantasy (as suggested above, zombie Hitler, or bullet-ridden Hitler), OK. I offer alternative comparisons: - Dressing up as a Klu Klux Klan racist, carrying a noose. Sorry, that’s in hideous taste. (Note, again, if you do something like painting the red circle and diagonal line meaning “NO” on the hood, that’s different.) - Dressing up as the Columbine murderers in Colorado - Dressing as Jesus carrying the cross Those costumes are offensive, and would be offensive, to the majority of the population. Offensive and disruptive. Again, obviously, if you’re invited to a private party where you know everyone shares the same (sick) sense of humor, fine, come dressed as Jesus or Hitler. But if you think you’re going to offend a significant number of the people who see your costume… well, why? [philosophic rant]We live in an age when being shocking and offensive is considered chic. I hope we grow out of it.[/rant] ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/117 "2009-11-01T00:31:16Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > The reason, as I pointed out a couple of posts back, is that there isn’t a neo-Bushido movement that’s going around beating people up and occasionally killing them because they’re of the “wrong” race/colour/creed. Not here in the west, and not in Japan. They’re called “Uyoku,” and, yes, they do sometime kill Koreans or Chinese in Japan ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/118 "2009-11-01T00:43:49Z")
The single distinguishing factor that sets Hitler apart from Genghis Khan, Torquemada, Dracula, etc., is not that he’s recent, or that it’s PCness gone awry, or whatever. It’s that Hitler is a symbol for a system of beliefs, a political system, that actively works to harm other human beings. As long as he is still used as a symbol by white supremacists–who are essentially terrorists–then yeah, I’d send the kid home and make sure he understands the consequences of his actions, while not sending home the Draculas and the Gacy’s and the whoever else. Dressing as Hitler is as much an act of terrorism toward Jewish students as dressing as a Klansman would toward black students. Completely unacceptable. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/119 "2009-11-01T00:59:32Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > You’re seriously saying a good Saddam Hussein costume wouldn’t be recognized? I very much doubt that. > > A well-executed Stalin costume would probably be recognizable by a lot of folks, too. Yeah, really! No one would recognize Saddam? WTF? He was a very, very important (note that I said “important,” not “good”) figure in some very important world events that happened only a few years ago. I doubt that a Saddam costume wouldn’t be recognized by 14-year-olds. Stalin might be a bit harder to pull off and be recognized among today’s high-schoolers. His symbol was easily recognizable, like the swastika, but he didn’t have a very recognizable uniform, I don’t think. Unlike Hitler. Idi Amin and Pol Pot, I think, would probably be recognized by just about nobody. In fact, if I were the teacher of a kid who dressed up like Amin I might even be apt to say, “Wow, you not only know who Idi Amin was but you actually cobbled together a costume!” before telling him I thought it might be inappropriate to some people and he should be careful (and I’m talking about a black kid doing that. Anyone in blackface as Idi Amin would be sent to the office right away…but not for the costume itself). See, it’s all about who you might offend. Will a costume of Hitler offend enough people to endanger the safety of the student and class? Yes. Would a costume of Stalin? Maybe. Would a costume of Pol Pot? Uh, no (and going “There are some Cambodian-Americans in my neighborhood who would be offended” means nothing unless they actually go to the same school, know who Pol Pot was, and the costume is recognizable enough). People would probably think a Pol Pot costume was just somebody dressing up as a farmer, or something. But taping your eyes into “slanty eyes” would offend more people and that would be unacceptable. Best high school halloween costume I ever saw: my best friend once dressed up like Judge Ito. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/120 "2009-11-01T01:03:21Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > You’re seriously saying a **good** Saddam Hussein costume wouldn’t be recognized? I very much doubt that. > > A **well-executed** Stalin costume would probably be recognizable by a lot of folks, too. Key words here. You would have to go to quite a bit of effort for either of these to be recognizable to the majority of people, much less high school students. Stalin _still_ isn’t perceived to be a villain by the majority of Americans, and since we “kicked Saddam’s butt, and all he killed were A-rabs” (yes, I know the difference. Does most of the population? No.) Neither costume has the impact of a Hitler, and either could be explained by mere stupidity. Hitler requires stupidity _and_ malice. Bounced in a flash, and no apologies or regrets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795.md?page=7)