Antisemitism Update and Reflections from School Superintendent Jon Sills

Submitted by Bedford’s Superintendent of Schools Jon Sills

[Editor’s Note: The following message was sent to parents of students in the Bedford Public School on Friday, May 23]

Unfortunately, the antisemitic incidents that have plagued our schools this year have not yet come to an end.  In and around April vacation, there were several disturbing incidents including vandalism at Temple Shalom Emeth in Burlington, and a combination of racist, anti-Muslim and antisemitic graffiti at Middlesex Community College.  Some ugly misogynist, racist and antisemitic texting by a high school student about another student was also uncovered around the same time. Last week, we found several swastikas and racist “N” words in the high school bathrooms.  This week, we found two more swastikas in bathrooms.

We don’t know whether the antisemitic and the racist graffiti is being done by the same person(s), but they are despicable either way.  The police and school administration continue to work together to try to identify the individual(s) responsible.  I believe that some of these incidents have been motivated by genuine hate ideology and that other instances may very well be copycats or the expression of immature or angry adolescents thumbing their noses at authority.  While the high school administration enjoys the widespread respect of the student body, we are always cognizant of the existence of a few disaffected individuals.  The fact that no students have come forward to share what a perpetrator may have confided in them, however, is surprising, and suggests that the student(s) doing this are relatively isolated.  The ADL has advised us that the actions do not appear to be the work of an organized hate group;

Understandable Questions, Unfortunate Rumors

Some of us have questioned whether being public about these incidents has caused bigger problems, whether we have blown things out of proportion. Still others, apparently, have speculated that the perpetrators may be athletes and the administration is going easy on them so we don’t jeopardize our athletic standing.  Others have circulated rumors that we have expelled a student.

While our publicizing these incidents may have given an audience to a few attention-seekers, the public discourse has helped us to recognize that hate graffiti is only one manifestation of a societal sickness that infects even proudly inclusive communities like Bedford.

To read the mysoginistic, racist and antisemitic rant that one student texted about another, or to learn that our middle school students have had pennies thrown at them (even by friends in jest), or that a group of students would choose a Nazi symbol for a club, even if not maliciously intended, or that Muslim children have been teased as “terrorists”, or that some kids called out of a bus, “hey dumpling” to an Asian adult, is to realize that we have important work to do to counter antisemitism, racism and other forms of intolerance.

All of the public attention has been painful, but we in the schools believe that we will be stronger for the insights.  As to the rumor about our going easy on perpetrators who are assumed to be athletes, I can only shake my head with sadness at the level of cynicism that must grip some individuals.  Regarding individual student consequences, privacy rights and ethics prohibit our sharing specific information.

The Real Story Is the Quality of Our Response

As the ADL and many others have said so clearly, a community should not be judged by the existence of hate incidents but by how it responds, and I think that Bedford can be proud of how we are responding.  The identification of the perpetrators is important, but the more impactful work is longer term, and it is to that that we have turned most of our attention.  The schools have a very strong foundation to build upon including years of inclusive teaching, anti-racism teacher training, multicultural extra-curricular activities, and school-wide celebrations.

But as I have written previously, these incidents have pushed us to dig deeper and to work harder at creating safe school environments where students stand up to bias, bullying and other forms of intolerance and learn to truly appreciate the richness of a diverse society.

Important Steps

Since my last email (April 16) updating you regarding the antisemitic incidents that concern us all, a number of very positive steps have been taken.  They include, but are not limited to:

• Continuing police and school administration investigations and the promotion at the high school of a police tip line
• The entire police department received Anti-Defamation League hate incident training
• Some high school students have organized a Walk in My Shoes club and they invited Holocaust survivor, Agnes Bales, to speak to 400 students ast week. Powerful.
• Individual elementary school teachers have implemented new age-appropriate activities to promote an appreciation of diversity

• The Bedford Public Schools has convened a task force to review our curriculum and instruction, an outgrowth of the cultural proficiency work that we began prior to this year’s anti-semitic incidents, and further informed now by those incidents
• The schools have identified some curricular areas that will be strengthened, including the integration of some wonderful lessons from Teaching Tolerance at the elementary level, deepening the comparative religions unit at the middle school, and adding Facing History curricula and civics in the eighth grade.
• The schools are engaging the ADL to train our peer leaders as a new and integral part of our peer leadership curriculum, and we continue to work with IDEAS, a consortium of school districts working together on diversity issues A third meeting of concerned town officials, clergy, school personnel, students and community members took place to pursue steps that will enhance the town’s and schools’ longstanding efforts to be an actively inclusive community.
• The Bedford clergy’s Love Your Neighbor Campaign has continued and the clergy have been working together to reflect on their own practices Many community members and officials attended a Holocaust Memorial at Temple Shalom Emeth
• A variety of meetings have taken place between the police, the schools and “hate group/ incident” experts

Invitation to Participate

A third meeting of concerned town officials, clergy, school personnel, students and community members took place on May 1 at Bedford High School. While there was a good deal of discussion about whether the ad hoc task force should blend in with Bedford’s longstanding, though not recently active, Human Relations Council, the assembled folks decided that continuing to work on the issues was most important at this time.

Accordingly, two committees were formed:

• a Community Action committee that is working to develop community-wide measures such as an annual multicultural celebration; and
• a Schools Support Committee that will support the schools as we strengthen the kinds of teaching and learning that develop students’ abilities to discern and resist bias and understand and appreciate diversity.

Each committee has a person in charge of convening meetings.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Marilou Barsam at [email protected] (Community) or Claudia Fox Tree at [email protected] (Schools).

Past Controversy Involving the ADL

Just a clarification for folks who are interested.  Bedford, which was originally a No Place for Hate Community, ended its affiliation with the ADL program some years ago because the ADL at that time did not recognize the Armenian Genocide as a genocide.  In recent years, however, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is an exceptionally strong anti-hate organization and a welcome partner, has changed its position and now publicly acknowledges the Armenian Genocide as a genocide and refers to it along with the Holocaust as one of history’s horrific occurrences.

To contact Superintendent Sills

Superintendent Jon Sills,  Bedford Public Schools – 781-275-7588 or [email protected]