Pro-Hitler Speech by 5th-Grader Decried : Education: Apology is demanded after student's portrayal of the dictator as a great military leader wins second place in a school oratory contest.

Pro-Hitler Speech by 5th-Grader Decried : Education: Apology is demanded after student’s portrayal of the dictator as a great military leader wins second place in a school oratory contest.

By PSYCHE PASCUAL

Feb. 29, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

THOUSAND OAKS — Westlake Elementary School parents and Jewish community leaders on Friday demanded a public apology from school officials who allowed a student to dress up as Adolf Hitler and deliver a speech sympathetic to his dictatorship.

The reaction came after a fifth-grade student Monday addressed an auditorium filled with students with a four-minute speech that portrayed Hitler as a youth who was mistreated by Jews and then grew up to become one of the world’s great military leaders. The unnamed boy, who donned a khaki uniform, boots, a swastika armband and a fake mustache, was awarded second place in the oratory contest by a panel of teachers.

Rabbi Moshe Bryski of the Chabad of the Conejo said he was contacted by angry parents concerned that some students came away with a positive image of Hitler.

“The children came home and said: ‘Hitler wasn’t so bad,’ ” Bryski said. “This is why the David Dukes are out there who are able to rewrite history.”

Student Asher Goldstein, 10, said he was afraid to wear his Jewish Star of David to school after the speech. “He didn’t talk about the Holocaust,” Asher said. “He said a bunch of different things that weren’t nice to people. It just kind of makes you sick, someone dressing up as a Nazi.”

William Seaver, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, declined to blame the teachers who allowed the speech to take place or gave it a second-place award. He declined to say whether the teachers were disciplined.

But Seaver acknowledged that the teacher who approved the speech used “questionable judgment. . . . I don’t think anyone could construe Hitler as a positive person.”

Seaver said the Hitler speech prompted him to revise the rules for oratorical contests, including a new requirement that speeches about historical figures focus on those who have made a positive contribution to society.

The school district will also require teachers and principals to review the content of speeches before they are delivered to ensure that the subject matter is appropriate for schoolchildren.

“I think an unfortunate incident occurred. I am sorry that it happened,” Seaver said. “I’m trying to ensure that the issue doesn’t arise again.”

A group of mothers who picked up their children from Westlake Elementary School on Friday said they remained upset that officials failed to respond immediately after the speech and that no one has apologized to them.

“This was offensive to people who are Jewish or non-Jewish,” said Marsha Zimmerman, whose daughter Candice is in the same fifth-grade class as the boy who delivered the speech. School officials have declined to reveal the boy’s name.