Janney principal email about yesterday’s events

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would this make you upset? Me and several parents are quite shocked and upset at this.

“I have reached out far too many times in the past few years with emails on how to talk to your child about challenging topics given events occurring in our community, our city, or our country. I am heartbroken to be reaching out this morning to let you know how we will be discussing the disgusting act of domestic terrorism that occurred yesterday with students today.

I know that many of us are still processing the insurrection by White supremacists that occurred yesterday at the US Capitol. As DC residents, we have been impacted in a unique was as some of our family members, friends, and neighbors were present at the Capitol.

We will be discussing yesterday’s events at Jamboree and during Morning Mornings and virtual instruction. You may choose to keep your child offline today or to skip Jamboree today. I am including what we will discuss at Jamboree at the end of this email to let you make the best decision for your child. Additionally, please know that our teachers and staff members are still processing what happened yesterday and they may need to cancel certain live lessons or may need to step away from the computer for all or part of the day. Thank you for being patience and flexible with them during this time.

Talking points at Jamboree:
*We will discuss the basic events: a large group of primarily White people forced their way into the US Capitol building. It was a scary time for many people.

*We will also let kids know that they will be able to talk about yesterday’s events today with teachers. Our children probably have a lot of questions and the adults won’t have all the answers. We will let students know that they – or their teachers - might need to take a break from parts of online learning today because this is hard to talk about.

*We also know the Black Lives Matter protestors were treated very differently this summer than the angry mob yesterday. This is an example of the power and privilege that exists in our country today.”

Public school employees have First Amendment rights to engage in campaign activity on their own time as private individuals. They do not have the same freedom to engage in campaign activity at school.

Opposing a violent attack on our democracy, democratic institutions, and constitution isn't a partisan political issue.

[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.

This! How fragile is the Principal expecting these teachers to be?

The rest of it is fine for older kids, but some parents might not want their younger kids to be afraid. We talked about it with our older child and had they had some good discussions in classes, but we're not telling our younger kids. They're already afraid of the coronavirus and are having a horrible time with distance learning and not seeing any extended family. This stuff should be discussed in an extra class for younger kids, so parents can decide whether they want their child to attend. Sending an email the morning of doesn't allow sufficient time. Come on, parents are already serving as teacher's aides and trying to work. Of course we're too busy to constantly check our personal emails. Completely unreasonable timing expectations by the Janney Principal.

I mean, unless you were under a rock you should have realized that it might come up at school. I didn't know how it would be addressed at my kids school, I didn't get a letter, but I anticipated that it would come up in some way/shape/or form. If I had concerns about that, I would have either reached out ahead of time or kept my kids off the computer for the day. Actually getting a heads up with more details in advance was really considerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good grief, OP.

I don't believe for a minute that you "And your friends" were upset about this.

I bet it was only you.

Please move from AU Park. If you don't know it by now, you're cut from different cloth. Which is fine!

OP here - I didn’t say my friends. I said other parents. Their displeasure with it came up because of an incident during one of the class discussions about this.

Your attitude is exactly the problem. I’m a woman of color. You want me to leave AUPark because I’m “cut from a different cloth”? Typical.

DP here. I'm also concerned that the dialogue is skewing towards "you better think exactly like me or you're (insert negative adjective)." It sounds like this issue was addressed quickly without careful thought to potential outcomes. I posted similar beliefs as in the letter to FB, but I purposely didn't tell my two youngest kids because I felt it would just induce more fear and anxiety and could easily be misinterpreted by young children, resulting in negative outcomes like OP's child had. Making this a racial issue could lead to more division if not handled thoughtfully. Parents also have the right to decide how much of this political strife they want to expose each of their young children to.

Don't even get me started on the whole please excuse your teachers while they lose their minds and find yet another way to stop doing their jobs. These over the top reactions are part of the reason why I don't want my prek kid exposed to this.

[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.

This! How fragile is the Principal expecting these teachers to be?

The rest of it is fine for older kids, but some parents might not want their younger kids to be afraid. We talked about it with our older child and had they had some good discussions in classes, but we're not telling our younger kids. They're already afraid of the coronavirus and are having a horrible time with distance learning and not seeing any extended family. This stuff should be discussed in an extra class for younger kids, so parents can decide whether they want their child to attend. Sending an email the morning of doesn't allow sufficient time. Come on, parents are already serving as teacher's aides and trying to work. Of course we're too busy to constantly check our personal emails. Completely unreasonable timing expectations by the Janney Principal.

I mean, unless you were under a rock you should have realized that it might come up at school. I didn't know how it would be addressed at my kids school, I didn't get a letter, but I anticipated that it would come up in some way/shape/or form. If I had concerns about that, I would have either reached out ahead of time or kept my kids off the computer for the day. Actually getting a heads up with more details in advance was really considerate.

No, I wouldn't expect that other 4 year olds would bring it up, and it would be highly inappropriate for teachers to tell 4 year olds about it. Sure, my friends and I discussed/condemned this, but we're grown ups.

[Anonymous]

I like the way our school handled it. They posted resources for support for any student having issues along with suggested books for parents to use to discuss with their children. That way the kids who either don't know about it or aren't afraid don't get turned into anxious wrecks by teachers who are expected to be so overwrought that they have to leave mid-class in tears.

[Anonymous]

I'd be proud that the school is committed to raising conscious kids and grateful for the opportunity to opt out or speak to our kids about it as we want. There was a literal terrorist coup yesterday by nazis. This is not something we don't talk about.

[Anonymous]

Of course it should be discussed! The only question about the Janney email is if it defines the problem too narrowly as a wrong of “white people” rather than disaffected, extremist, racist whites. And why do they think it’s okay to ne such poor losers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

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

Uhhh yea, the guy wearing the “camp auschwitz” shirt was totally an outlier. Give me a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

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

Uhhh yea, the guy wearing the “camp auschwitz” shirt was totally an outlier. Give me a break.

and the guy inside the capital with the confederate flag totally has black friends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

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

Uhhh yea, the guy wearing the “camp auschwitz” shirt was totally an outlier. Give me a break.

and the guy inside the capital with the confederate flag totally has black friends

And the guy wearing the 6MWE shirt. He must have lots of Jewish friends. As a Janney parent, I’m saddened that other parents at the school found that email offensive. I hope OP took their criticisms directly to the principal in addition to airing their complaints anonymously on DCUM. If you’re so offended, surely you don’t mind attaching your real name to your complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

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

Uhhh yea, the guy wearing the “camp auschwitz” shirt was totally an outlier. Give me a break.

and the guy inside the capital with the confederate flag totally has black friends

And the guy wearing the 6MWE shirt. He must have lots of Jewish friends. As a Janney parent, I’m saddened that other parents at the school found that email offensive. I hope OP took their criticisms directly to the principal in addition to airing their complaints anonymously on DCUM. If you’re so offended, surely you don’t mind attaching your real name to your complaints.

Not being able to imagine having an opinion you wouldn't be comfortable voicing with your name attached to it to your kid's school administration is, perhaps ironically, a central example of privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

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

Uhhh yea, the guy wearing the “camp auschwitz” shirt was totally an outlier. Give me a break.

and the guy inside the capital with the confederate flag totally has black friends

And the guy wearing the 6MWE shirt. He must have lots of Jewish friends. As a Janney parent, I’m saddened that other parents at the school found that email offensive. I hope OP took their criticisms directly to the principal in addition to airing their complaints anonymously on DCUM. If you’re so offended, surely you don’t mind attaching your real name to your complaints.

Not being able to imagine having an opinion you wouldn't be comfortable voicing with your name attached to it to your kid's school administration is, perhaps ironically, a central example of privilege.

Disagree that this is a “central example of privilege” (vs being able to engage in armed insurrection on our Capitol building and walk out unscathed).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was an attempted Coup! Our Capitol was breached, our President essentially endorsed the activity, etc. It will go down in History as one of the most important days in United States History. Your child just experienced one of those moments in history where people will ask throughout their lifetime "Where were you during the attempted Trump Coup (or whatever it ends up being known as)?" In future years this will be as important to study as December 7th, 9/11, etc.

Your 4 year old needs to know about this. (Of course, age appropriate conversations... but not ZERO conversations)

This. OP, did you not talk to your child about the news at all???

This. It was a historical moment. You are wrong on any criticism of the school's reaction and your child is lucky she will learn about social issues and this country's true history somewhere.

+3 My non-political HS student was very upset about the confederate flag being inside the Capitol building--the first time ever. We need to be honest about history and stop white washing it.

Re teachers not being able to teach: There are all kinds of professionals on Twitter saying how they are barely getting any work done. There was a pages long thread in the Politics forum about how people were doing emotionally. Yesterday is a day that will go down in history, and coupled with the pandemic there is a lot of stress. Let's all be a bit more compassionate.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:out of line.

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

+1000