MCPS letter today - So sad this is still happening

[Anonymous]

Well then MCPS should stop assuming these are hate incidents. If a symbol pops up, then just have the perpetrators remove it and they should be suspended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well then MCPS should stop assuming these are hate incidents. If a symbol pops up, then just have the perpetrators remove it and they should be suspended.

It’s all about context. Jewish kids making Hitler jokes amongst themselves is obviously different from a Swastika painted on the wall.

[Anonymous]

The swastikas could be Jewish kids also joking around. Maybe less attention (which the perpetrators may be seeking) and less jumping to conclusions about it being hate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well then MCPS should stop assuming these are hate incidents. If a symbol pops up, then just have the perpetrators remove it and they should be suspended.

THIS

That would be a much better approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The swastikas could be Jewish kids also joking around. Maybe less attention (which the perpetrators may be seeking) and less jumping to conclusions about it being hate.

Agree with you. It’s like all these people in MCPS don’t even know how kids’ minds work. Have they studied child/teen psychology?

Quit drawing even more attention to these kids and their (bad) behavior and quit automatically making it a ‘hate crime’.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents, We Need Your Help!
FEBRUARY 17, 2023
Dear MCPS Community,

Far too many families and communities across MCPS have come home over the past several weeks to letters from their school condemning acts of antisemitism. A concerning number of students have drawn Nazi symbols on desks, verbally assaulted Jewish peers, spoken anti-Jewish tropes, and glorified Naziism via pictures broadcasted on social media. These acts have left me – and so many of you – feeling angry, dismayed, and horrified.

Halfway through my 21st year working in MCPS, I have seen waves of hate strike our system. They do not, and have not ever, represented who we are. I know that we are so much better than this. And as with so many of the challenges we face, I also know that our community can and will rise up and collectively act upon our core values: learning, relationships, respect, excellence, and equity.

Our schools and staff are committed to being a safe and nurturing home to every student—every day. But we cannot achieve that goal alone. I need you – our parents, guardians, caregivers, and community leaders – to join me in saying NO MORE, to remind one another that the ties that unite us are much stronger than the forces that divide us.

In a message the Board of Education president and I shared on Jan. 21, after a series of antisemitic incidents, we wrote, “As we fight these repeated acts of hate, we must challenge one another to learn and understand what antisemitism, hatred, and racism are and the harm they cause.” That challenge inspired real action. But so long as this ugly problem persists, we must do more.

What MCPS is doing

Leaders in schools and offices across the district have come together to do what we do best: educate. MCPS educators took up the challenge and partnered with advocates and experts in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), among others, to deepen awareness of antisemitism, increase age-appropriate curriculum teaching about the Holocaust, restore community in the aftermath of antisemitic acts, and listen to family concerns.

When an act of antisemitic hate-bias occurs, we administer serious and appropriate discipline in accordance with the student code of conduct. But we will not punish our way out of the spike we face. Whenever possible, we must turn to education – because when our students know better, they do better.

Let’s be clear, demonstrations of hate – antisemitism – have victims.

Written symbols, gestures, and performative imitations invoking the Nazi regime and its leader Adolf Hitler are painful, frightening, and traumatic for Jewish people. They directly reference the systematic, genocidal mass murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust, which occurred less than 100 years ago. Many Jewish MCPS students have personal, familial connections to the Holocaust, both through grandparents or other relatives who survived and those who perished. The horrors of the Nazi death camps were preceded by the proliferation and normalization of blunt antisemitic images, gestures, and words -- the same images, words and gestures being casually mimicked by students today. This behavior results in Jewish students and many others feeling unsafe and threatened in their own schools and communities.

Our children must not be victims.

To learn and achieve at high levels, all students must feel physically and emotionally safe. Anxiety or pain caused by acts of hatred holds students back from bringing their best to the classroom. ALL of our children, at ALL times, must BE safe. No person should feel invalidated by the actions of another, intentionally or unintentionally.

What you can do at home

It’s easy. As the trusted and loved adults in our children’s lives, join us in educating our children. Take time to remind our students that:

Hate is wrong
Hate has victims
Hate divides us, and
Hate has consequences in civil society
Instruct your children that prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization in the form of hateful words, and symbols, have no place in school, at home, or in the community. The antidote to such hate comes from the power of friendship, love, and respect.

As parental figures, you aren’t in this alone. Many resources, like those at the bottom of this message, can help you with these difficult discussions.

Let’s challenge each other to do better.

As a community, we must speak loudly, clearly and together against antisemitism and all acts of hate and racism. Whatever your race, background, gender identity, sexual orientation or religion, when we are inclusive and welcoming, when we embrace our differences rather than let them tear us apart, we move our community one step closer to reaching our full potential. I believe we can and will reach that potential – but if we are to do so, there is no room for hate. Let us stand in solidarity to condemn antisemitism, hate, and racism. Let us do this together.

Now do a letter this long and detailed about sexual abuse of students by staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been an issue for many years. This is mcps pretending to care when they don’t.

What are you doing to address this issue? Do you think Kids get these ideas from home? We can see many adults and retired subscribing to this type of philosophy.

I’m Jewish. I highly doubt it’s coming from my home.

My family is Jewish. No group is immune from hating others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The swastikas could be Jewish kids also joking around. Maybe less attention (which the perpetrators may be seeking) and less jumping to conclusions about it being hate.

This kind of speculation is completely offensive. It's always the same parents trying to excuse this behavior by casting blame with 0 evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well then MCPS should stop assuming these are hate incidents. If a symbol pops up, then just have the perpetrators remove it and they should be suspended.

hold a restorative circle which might actually help unlike these old-school punishments which everyone knows accomplish nothing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a good, short documentary to show ms and hs kids about nazi and the holocaust?

When I was an mcps student one of our field trips was to the holocaust museum and it was so impactful. My kids have never gone. Why was the holocaust field trip cut out?

I thought they stopped teaching about the Holocaust? Was done in 7th grade and now it's not?

My kid's 7th grade class last year DID cover the Holocaust. They read "All But My Life" and had a Holocaust survivor do a talk and Q & A session with the kids after they had finished the unit.

[Anonymous]

Why is it that, in all of the discussions around race, fairness, college admissions, etc is it the case that the overrepresentation of the Jewish population in Ivy League schools is never discussed?

“40% of students at Columbia and UPenn are now Jewish.“

https://www.jta.org/archive/doors-of-ivy-league-colleges-reported-wide-open-for-jewish-students

“2.2% of US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification”

Should we be drawing swastikas on school grounds? Hell no. Should we have an open discussion around the systemic issues that are leading to one group being so remarkably over overrepresented and the level of suppressed antagonistic thoughts that may be brewing under the surface and leading to these aggressive behaviors?

Let’s see how the board responds to such a thought.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews#:~:text=According%20to%20Gallup%20and%20Pew,demographers%20Arnold%20Dashefsky%20%26%20Ira%20M.

I mean these stats are remarkable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get this. I really, really don't. What is going on at home that these kids think this is okay?? Are their parents really talking about how much they hate Jews around the dinner table? Do they get unrestricted access to the internet? Are parents totally and completely absent? I'm struggling to wrap my head around it.

I don't think the kids who do this actually hate Jews. I think they just do it to see the reaction it gets. Stupidity not hate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that, in all of the discussions around race, fairness, college admissions, etc is it the case that the overrepresentation of the Jewish population in Ivy League schools is never discussed?

“40% of students at Columbia and UPenn are now Jewish.“

https://www.jta.org/archive/doors-of-ivy-league-colleges-reported-wide-open-for-jewish-students

“2.2% of US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification”

Should we be drawing swastikas on school grounds? Hell no. Should we have an open discussion around the systemic issues that are leading to one group being so remarkably over overrepresented and the level of suppressed antagonistic thoughts that may be brewing under the surface and leading to these aggressive behaviors?

Let’s see how the board responds to such a thought.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews#:~:text=According%20to%20Gallup%20and%20Pew,demographers%20Arnold%20Dashefsky%20%26%20Ira%20M.

I mean these stats are remarkable.

Yes I think we should have a discussion about your anti-semitism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that, in all of the discussions around race, fairness, college admissions, etc is it the case that the overrepresentation of the Jewish population in Ivy League schools is never discussed?

“40% of students at Columbia and UPenn are now Jewish.“

https://www.jta.org/archive/doors-of-ivy-league-colleges-reported-wide-open-for-jewish-students

“2.2% of US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification”

Should we be drawing swastikas on school grounds? Hell no. Should we have an open discussion around the systemic issues that are leading to one group being so remarkably over overrepresented and the level of suppressed antagonistic thoughts that may be brewing under the surface and leading to these aggressive behaviors?

Let’s see how the board responds to such a thought.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews#:~:text=According%20to%20Gallup%20and%20Pew,demographers%20Arnold%20Dashefsky%20%26%20Ira%20M.

I mean these stats are remarkable.

The first article you quoted was published in 1967

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that, in all of the discussions around race, fairness, college admissions, etc is it the case that the overrepresentation of the Jewish population in Ivy League schools is never discussed?

“40% of students at Columbia and UPenn are now Jewish.“

https://www.jta.org/archive/doors-of-ivy-league-colleges-reported-wide-open-for-jewish-students

“2.2% of US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification”

Should we be drawing swastikas on school grounds? Hell no. Should we have an open discussion around the systemic issues that are leading to one group being so remarkably over overrepresented and the level of suppressed antagonistic thoughts that may be brewing under the surface and leading to these aggressive behaviors?

Let’s see how the board responds to such a thought.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews#:~:text=According%20to%20Gallup%20and%20Pew,demographers%20Arnold%20Dashefsky%20%26%20Ira%20M.

I mean these stats are remarkable.

The first article you quoted was published in 1967

OMG