Powerful Video Serves as Lesson for all Educators – Remembering Malky Klein A’H

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NEW YORK (VosIzNeias) —  A powerful video has been released by the Yad Malky Legacy organization.

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The video is in tribute to Malky Klein A’H. The narration in the video was composed by a close family friend in a powerful and poetic way, from a compilation of texts, emails, letters and conversations Malky herself wrote and said over the years.

The organization makes clear that the purpose of this video is not to lament the past or point fingers, but rather to inspire for one to learn through Malky’s own words, her שפתותיה דובבות בקבר, calling out to us, begging us to please ponder for a moment, learn from her life, introspect, self-reflect and do everything we can to make sure that no other Yiddishe Neshama has to go through what she did.

A sweet, good natured girl, Malky began receiving resource room services when she was four, her father told VosIzNeias. 

A teacher who told the class that Malky should have been left back inflicted the first of several major hits to Malky’s self esteem when she was just a second grader.

More blows followed as Malky’s high school acceptance was inexplicably rescinded weeks before school started. A second placement fell through weeks later as the school felt unprepared to deal with Malky’s extra academic needs and an offer by the Kleins to build and fund a resource room to help their daughter keep up with the workload was summarily rejected.

While Malky was finally accepted by a third school after months of being home, it was an exhausting experience as she spent all of her waking hours either in school or working with tutors.

By tenth grade the strain of having to invest hours to grasp what other students absorbed in minutes became too much for Malky and she dropped out of school completely, leaving her education and much of her religious upbringing behind.

It became clear to the Kleins that the rejection that Malky had experienced all too often in her educational career had left a deep imprint on her soul when after hearing about a local rabbi who had been given a prison furlough over the yomim tovim Malky blurted out, “they should put all rebbes, all teachers, all principals, everybody, they all belong in jail.”

Despite having supportive parents, Malky eventually began to dabble in drugs. On one occasion she explained to her father that drugs numbed the agony that was her constant companion, telling him “you do not know what it feels like being stupid every single day of your life. You can never feel that pain. That is what I feel.”

Malky’s continued battle against substance abuse lasted for years, coming clean first on her own and then going away to rehab when she found herself relapsing. She discovered a talent for art, painting vivid pictures that revealed a hidden gift but also spoke very clearly of her inner torment.

In time she felt ready to come back to Brooklyn, where she knew she would face accusing stares and the judgment of others.

In the one week that Malky was home with her family before she died, she overdosed on heroin twice. In the first instance, her father was able to bring her back from the brink of death by injecting her with a dose of Narcan, which reverses the effects of a heroin overdose. Malky’s second overdose proved to be fatal.

“I would especially tell principals and mechanchim and mechanchos to never think that they were born to be mechachim or mechanchos, that it’s in their DNA,” Malky’s father told VosIzNeias. “There is a lot more to learn of how to deal with kids that are not running on autopilot, kids that need extra help, kids that need guidance, kids that we need to be their GPS. Those are the kids that we need to concentrate on .”

Some children are more resilient than others and can withstand an insensitive remark, noted Klein. But for the others, a thoughtless comment can be devastating.

“One time telling a child in second grade that they belong in the first grade, they never ever get over it,” said Klein. “It makes them feel stupid for the rest of their lives.”

Klein recalled a visit he and his wife had paid to Ruchama Klapman of MASK after Malky was told to leave school in the beginning of ninth grade. Klapman called the principal of the school, asking them to reconsider their decision. Six years later, her words are eerily prescient.

“She picked up the phone and she called that principal and she said to the principal ‘I just want you to know if you don’t do something about this you will have blood on your hands.’”

The organization concludes the video description with the following request:

When children in our community face rejection, and loneliness, let’s make sure we can honestly face Hashem and say “ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה” – our hands have not spilled this blood.

Let us be confident to tell Hashem “עיננו לא ראו” – we did not turn a blind eye. And let us be certain that “לא פטרנוהו בלא מזונות” – when they left our homes, we did not send them without the love and care they so desperately needed. And by taking Malky’s story to heart and being part of the revolution, making sure that this never happens again, you will help give her Neshama and the Neshama of all children like her an Aliyah.

The full video can be seen below:


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20 Comments
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Nothing changes
Nothing changes
4 years ago

And good kids sitting home at this point of the year in Lakewood because some vaad who never met this kid thinks the kid should be in schools that dont reflect their hashkofa, when principals from elementary, parents, and child, beg for better placement….and so many other reasons…. good kids from good homes with good grades…. those people who reject without proper hashkofa reasonings will pay oh they will pay for each year and each minute of busha and heartache

M.k.
4 years ago

As the chofets chaim predicted,
The zchus of parents paying the outrageous schar limud costs will be the breaking zchus to bring the geulah…. bh”b

HOWEVER !!!!
Said the chofets chaim
I’m not mikahneh the gehenom of the school administrators and menahalim !!!

Muti Klein
4 years ago

I agree and there are still many high school girls out on the street here in Lakewood the system is completely broken.

gg
gg
4 years ago

its time to creat a different acedemic structure besides for a typical bais yakov institution for kids struggling in school. 40% of our girls would fit in there. why push them through such gruling horrible years. its a shame. kids with even minor learning dissibilities can flourish in chasidish type schools .

A- believer
A- believer
4 years ago

My heart is broken! Nothing has changed! When are we going to wake up ? How many korbonos do we have to see before making drastic changes in the so called system !!? What will chinuch look like in 50 years from now ?? I shudder to think of it ! Hashem have rachmunis on us all!

Moishe Finklestein
Moishe Finklestein
4 years ago

We must continue to torture our children until they resort to drug abuse and suicide.

lazy-boy
lazy-boy
4 years ago

when a person is rejected over and over again, it is hard to go out into the world a be like every one else. The crappy frum system is really to blame; a warm loving teacher could have made all the difference.

Hashem made some people super smart and other very difficult to understand standard learning. But the schools should have gotten their act together to help her.

As a famous rebbe once said, if a house is burning, you don’t take out the people who are whole, you take out the injured. The people who are whole can get out themselves.

Same is true of education, the teachers should have shown more love towards Malky than towards the top students; she needed it.

RIP Malky…..

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

“By tenth grade the strain of having to invest hours to grasp what other students absorbed in minutes became too much for Malky and she dropped out of school completely, leaving her education and much of her religious upbringing behind.“
This paragraph is hard to ignore and should give pause. Bc it actually implies that the educators were correct that she did not belong in these schools .
It’s not always the schools fault. Be honest what should they have done? If they took her based on This paragraph she was doomed to fail and everyone would yell how awful they are. If they didn’t , same result. This paragraph implies she should not have been mainstreamed and that can not be blamed on the schools.

TALMUDB
TALMUDB
4 years ago

Been in similar situation with an out of place son. The school system push him away . After much working with
him he survive without doing drugs or alcohol and is a mentch. Davens wells, says tehellim and learns mishnayos and as straight as an arrow. He runs his own business and make a panasua maybe not to high enough stanards but he is happy

Yakov
4 years ago

Nothing is going to change until HKB”H, Broiv Rachmov, will take away, the Chinuch of our children, from private businesses and put it in the hands of Government.
As problematic as Government Yeshivos might be, it is still not as bad as placing our children in the hands of businessmen who only want to show that there institution is better than there competitor,s Moisid.

been there
been there
4 years ago

I was going to comment something along the comments like the above, talk about title one etc., my own struggle to deal with dyslexia, ADD etc., however the after watching the video the most striking part is the last part, the list of names of the young people who died, WOW WOW WOW!

ah yid
ah yid
4 years ago

I am an educator for over 25 years and I am also the parent of a number of children who were out of the yeshiva system by 16 years old. I sadly can relate to both sides of this story. As the educator I see yearly parents fight tooth and nail to get a child into a school when it’s obvious the child needs another year of playgroup. Then it comes first or second grade the school wants to hold the child back and again there is a fight. Of course, there are times when a child is ready to begin school but doesn’t get the foundations of kriah. Usually, the child is promoted from grade to grade. Then there are report cards that can hardly be called report cards anymore. Diplomatic reports may be a better term. In this situation, the child sails through eight grades until he tries to get into a mesivta or high school. Most parents know their child is struggling, but if the school and teachers beat around the bush then most parents blissfully sail along until they get the rejection letters. As the educator, I do this because in 2019 parents don’t want to hear the truth until its too late.
As a parent, I blame the yeshivas for few things. One, too much emphasis, is placed on marks. Rebbeim are under pressure to finish a certain amount of material. There must be kriah specialiasts n every school to help the struggling reader. In most cases, a professional kriah teacher can pinpoint the problem and fix it in a few sessions. ( I’m not talking of real disability) Many yeshivos set their curriculum over 70 years ago or they follow such a yeshiva and the curriculum was never updated for today’s generation. The way one rebbi bemoaned my son’s marks you would think he was applying to be a rov or a dayin. Very little attention is given to a child’s midos and mentchlichkite. However my biggest complaint is against the mesivtas and high-schools How do you think a child feels on June 1, when 25 of his friends have a high school to go to and he doesn’t because his average is 75%. How do you think he feels that the 90 % student who was the troublemaker for 8 years gets into the top school. Many of these 75 average students would do very well in a level one yeshiva if there wouldn’t be such an emphasis on marks and there would be some extra curricular activities which even the 100 students could benefit from. For sure, there is a need for a level 2 school many students need a lower level of learning. However, it has been my experience that many level 2 yeshivos start taking in boys that are level 3, 4, and 5 and in a few years, the place is falling apart. In addition tuition at the good level 2 yeshivos are astronomical. Hashem should help all our struggling children.

David
David
4 years ago

Its interesting how many commentators here are lambasting the schools and the rebbeim …

But how many of these commentators pay full tuition to our struggling schools ? … The schools have large classes because they dont have money or space to split the classes … Rebbeim are underpaid and dont have time to give extra time or attention to the weaker kids … Many Rabbeim work 2 or 3 jobs, Why ? … lets pay the rabbeim like a public school tea her and Im sure they will have a lot more time & energy for their students !

Administrators and the Vaad in Lakewood work hard (pro bono) to accomadate each and every child — but do they get a thank you and do they rather a child not be in a school or is the parent intransigent on which school his son or daughter must be in ? The same Principals overworked running a school must go out and raise money too because many Parents wont pay basic Tuition !

And do fathers learn with their children nightly or a few times a week ? … are parents really understanding their childrens’ needs ? Are they they spending time with children – quality time ? And on shabbos, are Parents “there” for the kids ?Do they get tutors to study with the kids that need some extra help or attention ? Or are the parents on their smartphones during supper ? Are parents investing in their children ? Its a fact when children know their parents are focused on their children, children produce much better results !

Its easy to blame the schools but Parents where are you ?

David
David
4 years ago

Why in the world the schools are blamed for all the ills of children is beyond me !

If a child isnt capable in keeping up with the class, its imperative for the parents to find a school thats on the academic level if the child …

For a child to come home and say they cany keep up with the class, then parents have to change school to find a school that will fit for this child or hire tutors or some other solutions in conjunction with the school because there is so much that a school can do …

And if a High School doesnt feel a child is a cfit” for the school either haskafically ( a litvak in a chassidishe school or a TV house in a yeshivishe school) or academically why is the school legally have to take in the child ?

A mother
A mother
4 years ago

crying from her pain. The saddest part of the video is the end when the list goes on On of so many more Precious lives that were lost over the last few years.
Their Neshamos should have an Aliya. It’s Horrible.