Swastika is a symbol of peace, elite school tells sixth-graders

November 26, 2015 | 10:14pm

Sixth-graders at an elite Bronx private school have been caught drawing swastikas in art class, so administrators met with the kids — talking mainly about how the symbols represent peace in some cultures.

One parent who wishes not to be named said Jewish students have felt unsafe since the images began popping up three weeks ago at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, where tuition costs $45,100 a year.

Administrators decided to address the apparent anti-Semitism by holding a grade-wide meeting.

Parents say teachers spent nearly 12 of the 15 minutes on a PowerPoint presentation on how the swastika was still considered a sacred symbol — while only briefly mentioning how the Nazis had adopted it in the 1920s.

School officials never once mentioned the Holocaust, a parent said.

When asked what they learned, the kids simply said, “It wasn’t a good idea to draw” the swastikas.

“It’s a failure of an institution to educate,” one parent said. “Teachers and administrators were calling for a town hall meeting, but instead, they chose to do just sixth grade.

“Some of the teachers are really irate,” she added. “It’s kind of a hate crime and a crime against all of the community, and not to address it is horrible.”

Despite parents’ allegations that at least eight of the Nazi symbols had been seen on campus, school spokeswoman Meredith Halpern would confirm only that one had been drawn in art class.

But she refused to call it a swastika — and instead said that the student “drew a symbol that represents peace.”

Halpern added that the art teacher had approached the child and told him that the image could also mean hate to some people.

“The student was unaware of that meaning and promptly erased that image from the artwork,” she said.

Halpern also claimed that the presentation for the sixth-graders was meant to “educate them about the history of this symbol.”

“The adults in our community understand the horrific context of this symbol and our responsibility to teach our students what this image evokes,” she said. “At ECFS we have zero tolerance for any actions, including speech, that violate our humanist philosophy.”

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