KIARA ALFONSECA
Thu, December 7, 2023
Several teachers in Oakland, California, held an unauthorized "teach-in" on Wednesday regarding the Israel-Hamas war, they told ABC News -- a move that some school district officials have criticized.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, and Israel's subsequent retaliatory bombing campaign and siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) officials released guidelines and resources for teachers who plan to facilitate classroom conversations about the conflict.
Organizers of the teach-in told ABC News they felt the resources they were given offered one side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They estimated between 75 to 100 K-12 teachers were involved in the teach-in Wednesday, and said those teachers highlighted Palestinian narratives by hosting guest speakers, in-class discussions and other lessons in their classrooms.
An elementary school teacher in Oakland, who requested to remain anonymous for job security reasons, said she and other teachers "realized that the curriculum they were sending us was not the whole story."
"It did not include the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation," the teacher, who is Jewish, told ABC News.
Judy Greenspan, a retired math and science middle school teacher who is now a substitute teacher, told ABC News the district-sponsored curriculum was "presented in a very, very one-sided pro-Israeli way."
"There is another side," Greenspan, who is also Jewish, said. "We need to present it all."
MORE: The Israel-Hamas war has college campuses on edge. How some are tackling the issue.
High school teacher and teach-in participant Rachel Talasko, who said she has family in Israel, told San Francisco ABC station KGO that to "learn and process through" what she calls a "genocide" of Palestinians in Gaza amid the Israeli siege "is very, very complex. And so, for ourselves and for our students, to model for them what that looks like, I felt it was really important and essential."
In the Oct. 31 letter to educators detailing OUSD guidelines and linking to resources, the district's chief academic officer, Sondra Aguilera, wrote, "OUSD does not tolerate antisemitic, anti-Israeli, Islamophobic, or anti-Palestinian prejudice or discrimination. As a community that steadfastly opposes all forms of racism, we must consider how we can instill and promote these values within our classrooms."
Some teachers, including some members of the Oakland Education Association (OEA) teachers union, said they distributed resources on Wednesday for teachers who want a Palestinian perspective to supplement their conversations on the longstanding Middle Eastern conflict in the region.
Some teachers who are involved also said they held a voluntary virtual panel discussion on Wednesday with experts and organizers about the conflict that teachers could livestream. Other teachers planned to host guest speakers to talk with students and answer questions.
The collection of resources distributed for the teach-in was likened by critics, including some parents, to "indoctrination," a district official told ABC News. It was criticized for excluding or misrepresenting narratives about Zionism and Israel, calling Zionists "bullies" in one worksheet.
OUSD Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell criticized the teach-in lessons in advance of the planned action, saying in a statement to parents Monday that "our schools are sanctuaries for learning, and I am deeply disappointed by the harmful and divisive materials being circulated and promoted as factual." A district official told ABC News they "don't think the superintendent is seeking to be punitive," however, one teacher said they anticipate disciplinary measures from the district.
Johnson-Trammell pointed to district rules in place for discussing controversial issues in a classroom setting.
Controversial issues may be discussed in the classroom, per Administrative Regulation 6144, provided the issue is related to course content, provides conflicting points of view, allows for the discussion of alternative views and uses established facts as primary evidence.
Johnson-Trammell said in her statement that "our expectation is that all educators, in every classroom across the District, take seriously their responsibility to adhere to principles of education, and to keep their personal beliefs out of the classroom."
Sam Davis, an Oakland School Board director, told ABC News there's "a lot of fear and anger on both sides" in response to the ongoing classroom debate.
"We're hearing complaints from parents who feel like their children don't feel safe because of their Jewish identity in some classrooms," said Davis, who is Jewish.
"We're hearing from staff members who are Jewish, who feel like there's an antisemitism in the way that this is rolled out. ... Then also to speak to members of the Yemeni community and to hear how scared they feel," Davis said.
Oakland has a large and quickly growing Yemeni and Arab population, according to the OUSD.
The elementary school teacher who spoke to ABC News said she is "a descendant of Holocaust survivors," and understands the fears of the Jewish community.
"This curriculum does not attack Jews," she said. "It makes a space where we can all come together and say we're standing up for and with our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters right now."
In her statement to parents on Monday, the superintendent reaffirmed the district's commitment against antisemitism as well as anti-Israeli, Islamophobic or anti-Palestinian discrimination.
"We are aware of some recent incidents that may have cast doubt on the district's commitment to this fundamental expectation, and I want to be clear -- we are taking immediate and decisive action within our authority to address these issues," the statement continued.
The OUSD declined to comment further on the teach-in and instead directed ABC News to Johnson-Trammell's Monday statement.
The Oakland school district joins other schools across the United States in facing ongoing challenges in addressing the conflict and subsequent tensions. Federal officials have warned of a sharp rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia amid the Israel-Hamas war.
MORE: US extremists exploit Israeli-Palestinian tensions with calls for violence, hate: Experts
Davis told ABC News that students "feel really passionately but they also need help from adults to figure out how to express that upset and anger in productive ways. That's our role as educators, to help guide them, and being constructive and not just yelling at the wind."
The OEA also drew criticism for a statement on Instagram, which reportedly said it pledged "unequivocal support for Palestinian liberation" and did not mention the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, according to San Francisco-based TV station KRON.
The statement was later removed from social media and the group apologized, saying the post did not "accurately represent" the organization's original resolution in response to "student activism around the conflict in Israel and Palestine."
In a later statement, the organization said it mourned "the tragic loss of both Palestinian and Israeli lives these past weeks" and condemned what they call "the 75-year-long illegal military occupation of Palestine," referencing Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 and the subsequent ongoing military action in the region.
The organization has called for a cease-fire and an "end to the occupation."
US public schools took a stance on Israel-Hamas. The backlash was swift
Robin Buller in Oakland
Thu, December 7, 2023
Photograph: Barry Williams for New York Daily News via Getty Images
On 7 October, the day Hamas attacked Israel and the country began bombarding Gaza, the superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district posted on social media: “We stand with Israel.”
Weeks later, the teachers’ union in Oakland, California, issued a statement. “The Israeli government created an apartheid state,” it read. “We unequivocally condemn the 75 year long illegal military occupation of Palestine.”
Related: Israeli diplomat pressured US college to drop course on ‘apartheid’ debate
Both statements were met with almost immediate backlash from the community – parents, teachers and even politicians – who either disagreed with the content of the announcements or were befuddled by why a local school district would take a position on a complex global conflict.
It’s not just California: in Massachusetts, two school district superintendents were lambasted for insufficiently calling out Hamas in the statements they issued shortly after the conflict began and a Minneapolis teachers union sparked controversy when it issued a statement calling for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and for a boycott of Israel.
Across the US, public schools have been taking stances on the war, often leading to more division than solidarity. Districts have repeatedly found themselves in hot water over their approaches.
While some of the statements lacked context or were issued prematurely, leading to retractions, the backlash is part of a nationwide politicization of the education sector, experts say, especially in kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12) public school districts where school boards in recent years have become culture-war battlegrounds.
There is heightened attention and sensitivity in schools to all kinds of political issues right now
Jon Valant
“Over the past few years, schools have increasingly become sites of conflict,” said John Rogers, professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles who researches issues related to democracy, education, and inequality. “That has made schools more contentious spaces and education politics more partisan.”
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In some ways, what’s happening in K-12 schools reflects broader societal divisions over the Israel-Hamas war, whether it’s on college campuses, in workplaces, or in government. But experts say there are other dynamics at play in public schools that have set the stage for the uproar seen today.
In recent years, schools have come under attack by rightwing extremist organizations like Moms for Liberty that launch “conflict campaigns” to bring partisan debates into schools in order to sow distrust in public institutions, Rogers says. Usually they target lessons on racism or LGBTQ+ issues and encourage book bans. These groups exert most of their efforts in purple and blue districts – including in regions around Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area – experts say.
These groups aren’t fueling the school-based tensions around Israel and Gaza. But Rogers says their fringe methods have normalized the airing of political grievances in education.
Another factor lies in pandemic-era school closures, when classrooms were swiftly fettered to prevent the spread of Covid, said Jon Valant, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and director of its Brown Center for Education Policy. Unhappy with the pace of reopening and the institution of mask mandates, parents and community members showed up in school board meetings in unprecedented numbers to voice their grievances.
Schools have increasingly become sites of conflict ... That has made schools more contentious spaces and education politics more partisan
John Rogers
“What came out of it was a lot of parents getting frustrated and mobilized,” Valant said, adding that those same organizing methods spread to other issues.
From the racial reckoning following the 2020 murder of George Floyd to the implementation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, schools have become “a magnet for any political controversy” in ways we haven’t seen before, he said: “There is heightened attention and sensitivity in schools to all kinds of political issues right now.”
Taken together, these factors have made it so that schools are struggling to generate productive discussions about complex issues. And they have put teachers and administrators on the defensive, leading some administrators to see official statements as ways of getting ahead of pressure from parents or community members.
As educators have been targeted for supposedly teaching “critical race theory” or advancing a “woke” agenda for supporting transgender students, amid school board fights, many teachers today are concerned about how bringing contentious topics into their curriculum may impact their own careers. “Teachers are generally not engaging because they’re also fearful of being reported,” said Andrene Castro, assistant professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University.
In Alameda county, for instance, one Palestinian American teacher expressed concerns that having her students read texts written by Palestinian authors could lead to repercussions.
But while decrying an incident for which there is a consensus of opinions, such as a mass shooting, can be straightforward, drawing a line in the sand regarding a contentious global conflict can rile people up, especially in districts with diverse student populations, explained Rogers. “Statements don’t work as well in climates where there are cross-cutting values or interests in the community,” he said.
Such is the case in Oakland, where school district officials have come to a head with teachers who have called for a teach-in focused on Palestinian history.
What’s more, in cases where schools or local governments bungled statements and had to issue retractions, their efforts to get out ahead of an issue spurred new problems. “There’s a need for a good deal of complex and nuanced understanding in order to contextualize the issue that sometimes educators will not have access to,” Rogers continued.
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For Ailen Arreaza, executive director of national education advocacy organization Parents Together, there is at least one binding thread when it comes to parents’ interests: student safety.
Arreaza says that in the weeks following 7 October, she heard from a number of parents who were concerned about the targeting of Jewish and Muslim students. (Days after the war began, a Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in an alleged hate crime.) For these parents, Arreaza said, having access to practical resources about tolerance and bullying – not assertive political statements – was top of mind. “They just want their kids to be safe,” she said.
Teachers are generally not engaging because they’re also fearful of being reported
Andrene Castro
The chief concern for education experts is that the turmoil happening outside of the classroom directs resources away from the facilitation of critical conversations around Israel and Palestine within them.
“When you pretend like these things are not happening, students become disengaged,” said Castro, thinking back to 2012, when Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black boy, was killed by a member of the neighborhood community watch in Florida. At the time, Castro was teaching high school in a diverse district. She said that the unspoken rule among her colleagues was not to bring the event into the classroom.
“There was a similar silence around it,” said Castro, explaining that while teachers avoided discussions about the killing, their Black and brown students wrestled with intense feelings and struggled to connect with the curriculum.
That’s why now is a critical time for educators to help students and communities work collectively towards an understanding.
“[Students] want to be able to make those connections. That’s where teachers are important,” said Castro.
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