School leaders have failed kids with patterns of tolerating hate

Such tolerance invites dangerous excuses for accommodation, some which we have already heard: The hate is isolated to a few individuals, the hate will never be entirely eliminated, the hate is already being addressed, the hate that was not properly addressed in the past will certainly be properly addressed in the future — and so forth.

We no longer need to ask: “Will the school district make every effort to battle antisemitism in our schools, and will it do so with the necessary passion and commitment?” We already have our disappointing answer. The question has instead become: “Will we, as a town, bring more passion and effective tools to that work? Will we bring the vigor and seriousness to combating hate that the school district has so far lacked?”

If we choose to fight against hate in the strongest manner possible, and if we truly wish to demonstrate our own emphatic intolerance of antisemitism, and if we wish to prove that we will not make excuses for such failure, we must admit to ourselves that the current school administration, through a pattern of accommodation, has failed us and has failed our children — and that, as a consequence, a change in leadership has become necessary.

Craig Awmiller

Lang Street