Janney principal email about yesterday’s events

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

nowhere does it say all protesters yesterday were white supremacists. nowhere.

I wish they all had a sign-in sheet for us to check if they were or not, and then pass it to the FBI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. That it completely out of line.

What is your issue with the email specifically? Fwiw, we are Janney parents and are supportive of the way the school is handling it and how it was discussed in classes today.

+1

Janney parent here. What is the actual criticism of the email? I am grateful that our school faces these events head on and makes sure our kids know they can talk about it and ask questions.

It is not a topic that needed be discussed, particularly in this way, with my FOUR year old pre-K child.

This would be my objection too.

+1

You realize your child is at an elementary school with kids as old as 11? The world does not revolve around your 4 year old. The purpose of the email was to give parents a heads up so you could opt out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol people in AUPark were not fearful and terrified yesterday. Horrified and disgusted, yes. But fearful? Oh come on. I was fearful over the summer with all that going on and spilling into our neighborhood. But yesterday was not that.

WTF? Is this for real? You're more afraid of Black people peacefully demonstrating to try to get police to stop killing them, than you are of crazy white people with guns who openly admitted they were coming to DC to try to foment a civil war/revolution?

Man, your racism is showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the principal chose to further emphasize racial unrest by underscoring that these folks were white?

Let's combat racism by emphasizing - race?

I don't care if they were white, black, or any shade in between. What was done was disgraceful and an insult to democracy and to our country. Period.

Yes. Agree.

I can’t with you people. You’d be making excuses for hitler. “He’s just got economic anxiety!!!” Please make sure you vocally share this opinion on the janney listserv so I can be aware of who you are and make sure my kids don’t spend any time at your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the principal chose to further emphasize racial unrest by underscoring that these folks were white?

Let's combat racism by emphasizing - race?

I don't care if they were white, black, or any shade in between. What was done was disgraceful and an insult to democracy and to our country. Period.

Yes. Agree.

I can’t with you people. You’d be making excuses for hitler. “He’s just got economic anxiety!!!” Please make sure you vocally share this opinion on the janney listserv so I can be aware of who you are and make sure my kids don’t spend any time at your house.

You are (deliberately?) misunderstanding the point.

The principal’s talking points emphasized that the insurrectionists were “white” rather than “extremist whites.” The vast majority of whites, and certainly of the whites at Janney, are not white supremacists.

Which is a more effective is a more effective message to convey to a child
(1) “You don’t want to be part of those crazed, angry, racist law-breakers”
Or
(2) “You are part of that group of racist, awful insurrectionists”
?

Are you aiming to teach mutual respect, which is where kids at Janney are starting, or are you trying to harden division? Are you trying to teach mutual respect or shame and humiliation?

Meanwhile, despite sharing skin color, a huge difference between families at Janney and the angry, narrow-minded, and violent mob is level of education. Seems like a school could have a field day emphasizing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only bad thing is that "teachers may need to step away" from teaching today. WTF? unless those teachers were at the capitol bldg, they have no excuse to not be teaching today.

+1 I’m a teacher and I didn’t even think about stepping away

Thanks for being so insensitive to black people. You didn’t think about how we’d feel about the clear difference in treatment? Hell how white allies would feel? We were gassed and shot at and arrested, even when protesting peacefully.

F u if you seriously can’t understand why many teachers who ARE BLACK would feel upset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only bad thing is that "teachers may need to step away" from teaching today. WTF? unless those teachers were at the capitol bldg, they have no excuse to not be teaching today.

+1 I’m a teacher and I didn’t even think about stepping away

I am supportive of the letter and approach but the continued casual disregard for our kids’ academic time is stunning. My first grader had no academic subjects today- they watched a movie for half of their learning time (which is already only 20 min for each period that is supposed to be 40). My older ES kid didn’t have a class today bc the teacher was with her other class talking about the events and it went long...so he just didn’t have class and got out early. What?

That is unacceptable. Teachers need to be more professional.

This ... how many of the 175 M people who went to work in the US today were given carte blanche to “step away” and not do their jobs today ? There are things that impact people personally every day but folks show up and do their jobs. I am disappointed teachers were given outs today and allowed to not teach children for yet another day.

[Anonymous]

This thread made me grateful that my son is a Title 1 majority-minority school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread made me grateful that my son is a Title 1 majority-minority school.

Likewise. We don't do this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only bad thing is that "teachers may need to step away" from teaching today. WTF? unless those teachers were at the capitol bldg, they have no excuse to not be teaching today.

+1 I’m a teacher and I didn’t even think about stepping away

Thanks for being so insensitive to black people. You didn’t think about how we’d feel about the clear difference in treatment? Hell how white allies would feel? We were gassed and shot at and arrested, even when protesting peacefully.

F u if you seriously can’t understand why many teachers who ARE BLACK would feel upset.

NP I respect they might be upset, but if they can’t effectively do their job as a result take a sick day. But saying you just need to step away is unprofessional and unfair to kids who rely on you for their education. Which really is one of the most powerful tools we can give children.

There is also just some entitlement in the teaching profession- how many other people who went to work today had the luxury of stopping working when they were upset about this?

[Anonymous]

Appreciate the effort the school made here - my 3rd grader felt supported in their anxiety today as one of the earlier posters are right she watched us glued to devices yesterday and at 8-9 they knew something was off going in to today. Please don't slam a community trying to have a conversation even if it's not in your mind perfect. We all, or most of us, try to improve the dialog and that needs to continue. And yes I certainly had a hard time focusing on work today - so acknowledging teachers may too is simply compassion.

[Anonymous]

We have friends and family who were working at the Capitol yesterday including LEO who were responding. I was a mess all night and knew this might come up in my six year old’s class- not by the teacher, but by other kids who also had parents at the Capitol. I don’t know what the other parents are or are not discussing.

My six year old is pretty mature and I talked with her this morning to let her know what happened and that all of our friends and family are safe now but these were very bad people encouraged by the President. She already knows he was refusing to concede. I told her that it wasn’t something to bring up but wanted to share with her. I didn’t share with my younger kids.

I would have appreciated this email from the school, and I probably would have had my kids skip the morning meeting where they were discussing it. But for the older elementary kids it absolutely was important to give them the information and the space in which to process their feelings.

I don’t think it was appropriate for four year olds which is why I think it was good for the principal to let parents know in advanceZ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the principal chose to further emphasize racial unrest by underscoring that these folks were white?

Let's combat racism by emphasizing - race?

I don't care if they were white, black, or any shade in between. What was done was disgraceful and an insult to democracy and to our country. Period.

Yes. Agree.

Actually race is a very significant part of this story, even if you don’t give a crap about Black protesters being treated differently or choose to disregard the confederate flags and antisemitic garb. The race is the protesters undoubtedly influenced the Capitol police to treat the protesters in a benign fashion and underestimate the damage they were going to do. (They had been planning this for weeks— do you think it they were Black Lives Matter protests, the preparation would have been the same? No.). As a result, the capitol police were overrun and the symbol of our democracy was desecrated and we were made to look like a laughingstock in the world.

You realize it was literally our mayor’s - a black woman - decision to have a thin police presence, no violence by violence, and even unarmed guards? You realize she was the one who had requested unarmed and thinly present National guard presence which was there, just unarmed, as requested, and actually getting the full armed NG to a location takes time? We actually saw how much time it take to activate the NG during the protests over the summer. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-national-guard-protests-bowser/2021/01/04/220ced16-4e8d-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol people in AUPark were not fearful and terrified yesterday. Horrified and disgusted, yes. But fearful? Oh come on. I was fearful over the summer with all that going on and spilling into our neighborhood. But yesterday was not that.

WTF? Is this for real? You're more afraid of Black people peacefully demonstrating to try to get police to stop killing them, than you are of crazy white people with guns who openly admitted they were coming to DC to try to foment a civil war/revolution?

Man, your racism is showing.

I’m a POC and don’t you dare twist my words. I was more afraid over the summer protests because the looters spilled into our neighborhood, set things on fire, broke into stores, stole, seriously hurt people, and broke windows of many neighbors cars. My kids were crying in their rooms one of the nights because could hear all the yelling, glass breaking, and sirens. I live by the Friendship heights metro, just FYI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the principal chose to further emphasize racial unrest by underscoring that these folks were white?

Let's combat racism by emphasizing - race?

I don't care if they were white, black, or any shade in between. What was done was disgraceful and an insult to democracy and to our country. Period.

Yes. Agree.

I can’t with you people. You’d be making excuses for hitler. “He’s just got economic anxiety!!!” Please make sure you vocally share this opinion on the janney listserv so I can be aware of who you are and make sure my kids don’t spend any time at your house.

You are (deliberately?) misunderstanding the point.

The principal’s talking points emphasized that the insurrectionists were “white” rather than “extremist whites.” The vast majority of whites, and certainly of the whites at Janney, are not white supremacists.

Which is a more effective is a more effective message to convey to a child
(1) “You don’t want to be part of those crazed, angry, racist law-breakers”
Or
(2) “You are part of that group of racist, awful insurrectionists”
?

Are you aiming to teach mutual respect, which is where kids at Janney are starting, or are you trying to harden division? Are you trying to teach mutual respect or shame and humiliation?

Meanwhile, despite sharing skin color, a huge difference between families at Janney and the angry, narrow-minded, and violent mob is level of education. Seems like a school could have a field day emphasizing that.

+100