Student Walter Petryk must have known when he donned a Hitler costume this past Tuesday morning that administrators at Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences wouldn't be pleased. Probably for that precise reason, or because he had grown a mustache for the occasion, he did it anyway. Dean Paul Puglia removed Petryk from second period English: "Excuse me, führer, can I talk to you for a minute?" After convening in the hallway, Puglia asked the student, "Are you out of your mind, you idiot?" and told him, "Consider yourself my prisoner of war." Under interrogation, however, Petryk refused to remove the costume. Der Jugend's Jewish stepfather, Howard Bloom, editor of the New Paradigm book series and oft-censored author of The Lucifer Principle, defended the outfit as free expression. But fighting for free expression at school is one thing. Apparently, fighting for it (really fighting) on the New York subway is quite another--Petryk disguised himself as Charlie Chaplin during his morning commute.
"Hitler Youth H'Ween Shock," by David Andreatta and Patrick Gallahue, New York Post, November 1, 2006
