Tyler’s Hitler Report

    My ten year old grandson, Tyler had to do a report in his fifth grade class

  about a war figure. He originally wanted to do his report on U.S. Grant, but        

  his teacher insisted that he choose someone who was not from Ohio.

  He then picked Adolph Hitler for his subject.

     He did a great report in which he pretty much summed up World War 1

   in about three paragraphs . He also made a fine poster with pictures of  

   Hitler, and his army, and the swastika emblem. He told us that the teacher

   would give him five points extra if he dressed up in costume for his report.

   We advised him against dressing up as Hitler, because some people still

    have very strong feelings about what Hitler did and may react negatively.

        On the morning of the day that he was to give his report, my daughter’s

   boyfriend, Greg, offered to walk Tyler to school so he wouldn’t have to

   carry his report on the bus. It was a short distance. Their next door 

   neighbor also has a son in Tyer’s class, so Greg walked over and offered

   to walk him to school too. Greg talked to the boy’s mom, and she asked     

   him to drive them in her car and to pick up a pack of cigarettes for her on

   the way. They all loaded up in her white Cadillac and off they went.

     They stopped at a gas station on the way and Greg went in to get the

   cigarettes. The two boys stayed in the car and showed each other their

   reports . Greg came back and dropped the kids off at school. He then  

   returned the car and started working in the yard.  Very shortly thereafter

   he heard the neighbor woman calling his name. He  looked up toward the

   road  and saw the Bethel police talking to her. He walked up to see what

   all the commotion was all about.

      The Bethel police officer asked him if he had been to the Bethel  BP

   station earlier with two small boys in the car? Greg replied “yes”. The

   officer then asked if there were any swastika emblems on the car?

   Greg replied “no”. The officer seemed confused.  Greg then told him about 

   the Hitler report and asked the officer ,What is all this about?”

       The officer replied that there had been a complaint called in that two

   little boys in the back of a white Cadillac with swastika emblems on it

   were  parked at Bp and they were concerned about their “well being”.

   I failed to mention that Tyler’s classmate and buddy is hispanic looking.

        Greg  lost his patience briefly and  drew the officer’s attention to the

   fact that, “Two weeks earlier his house was robbed, and the police didn’t

   ask half as many questions  as now”. The officer replied that he was not

   the  officer that responded to that call.  He then left.

         I can only assume that whoever wrote down the license number and

   called in the complaint had a very vivid imagination. They must have

   assumed that since Tyler had swastikas on his poster that they must have

   been on the way to a KKK rally or a skinhead meeting. If that was the

   case, the Hispanic kid in the back may have been in some kind of danger.

        If whoever called in this complaint is really concerned about the

    “wellbeing” of these boys, I must assure them that neither Tyler, nor his

   family are bigots. In fact, we have always taught them quite the opposite.

            I only wonder what would have happened if we had not talked

    him out of  dressing up,  and whoever was looking into the car window,

    and was so concerned over his poster with swastikas on it,  could have

     then seen him with his little Hitler mustache looking up at them.

     It would have been a Kodak moment.

          Tyler got an A on his report.