YAVNEH PARENTS HIT BACK AT SHUL

PARENTS OF Yavneh College pupils have hit back at criticism of students’ behaviour by Radlett Synagogue chairman Alex Pomerance after damage to the shul’s ladies’ toilets and “disruptive behaviour” during Shabbat services.

Following the story last Friday, parents who felt Mr Pomerance was “bang out of order” took to social media to castigate him over his comments — and the for publishing the article.

Mr Pomerance has since claimed he was misquoted, adding that he had written to other schools about pupil behaviour in synagogue.

This week, Linda Rauch, whose 16-year-old son is at Yavneh, complained: “Every child was tarnished with the same brush because of the over-excitement and inconsideration of a few teenagers. You will find that at every school, Jewish or not.

“I have been to enough events, parties and barmitzvahs, where you see kids going wild and having fun. It was unnecessary to name the children as Yavneh kids because they were outside of school.” The Hertfordshire school’s reputationforgoodbehaviourhadinfluencedthedecisiontosendhersonthere.

Another parent, who asked not to be named, pointed out: “The kids weren’t in school uniform and weren’t representing the school. The fault lies with the parents or the teenagers themselves. They are teenagers and they are testing boundaries.

“I also think there’s an element of snobbery involved here as many Radlett parents send their children to private schools. But don’t private school kids occasionally behave badly, too?

“Kids get bored in shul and they misbehave. I know these problems exist but you don’t go and run after the school and say: ‘It’s your fault.’”

Inastatement,SpencerLewis,Yavneh’s head, said: “Our pupils are a credit to Yavneh College. The flood of letters, phone calls, emails and social media posts that we have had, particularly in the last week, are testament to that. I am extremelyproudof thewaytheybehave both in lessons and outside of school.”

You have misquoted me: I have never said to anyone that “Yavneh pupils had been a perpetual thorn in our side”.

At the end of the service, I said “because of an incident in the ladies toilets three of the cubicles were out of order” — specifically so as not to embarrass anyone. Not, as you have reported that “the girls’ actions reflected poorly on their school”.

We had previously written to Spencer Lewis of Yavneh, which you reported. What you did not report was that we had also written to JCoSS, Immanuel and JFS asking all schools for their co-operation in teaching their children respect when it comes to being in shul — and that we have received positive responses from all of the schools. Since that letter, the boys’ behaviour has vastly improved and on the past three occasions I have said what a pleasure they have been to have in shul.