Toronto's school board shoots the messenger
A trustee is punished for calling out antisemitic teaching materials.
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When the Israeli-Palestinian dispute flared up earlier this year, the Toronto District School Board prepared teachers by sending them a manual assuring them that the entire conflict was the Zionists’ fault and that the Palestinians were justified in resisting by any means necessary, including suicide bombers.
In May, TDSB student equity advisor Javier Davila was investigated for distributing 100 pages of unapproved and unvetted “resources to educators” to teachers who had signed up on an email list, about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Those materials were attacked for glorifying terrorism and violence against Israelis.
Among examples cited by CIJA are statements that Palestinians “have been legitimately resisting racism, colonization, and genocide since the 1920’s to the present day by any means necessary: general strikes, demonstrations, armed struggle, and martyrdom operations (called ‘suicide bombing’ by Zionists).”
The material included a link to the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a listed terrorist organization in Canada.
Davila was returned to his duties in July without discipline.
One Jewish school board trustee, Alexandra Lulka, complained about the anti-semitic tone of the materials, and an investigation has determined that her criticisms were justified.
Now the school board has recommended disciplinary action…against Lulka, because snitches get stitches.
A Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee who raised concerns on Twitter last spring about a “manual” sent to teachers that included anti-Semitic messages was recommended for “censure.”
The recommendation was issued on Thursday against trustee Alexandra Lulka by Integrity Commissioner Suzanne Craig, who in her report also found that the materials Lulka complained about did, in fact, contain some anti-Semitic writings and promoted terrorism.
“Censure,” according to trustees, “is the harshest penalty that can be meted out to a trustee.”
According to Craig, Lulka’s online posts “fell within the TDSB definition of being discriminatory and did breach” the district’s code of conduct.
She added she could not rule on other accusations against Lulka because her social-media posts were “intended to curtail the furtherance of distribution of materials that the Respondent believed were harmful to the wellbeing of students at the TDSB, in particular Jewish students. That being said, it was the responsibility of the TDSB and not the Respondent to make a determination of whether the materials were inappropriate and discriminatory.”
The school board is also upset that Lulka couldn’t bring herself to look beyond the blatantly antisemitic stuff to highlight the materials that don’t call for the wholesale slaughter of teh Joos:
“(Lulka) could have carefully crafted a statement to call out the potentially harmful materials while appropriately characterizing other materials as important, positive pro-Palestinian discourse. … If (Lulka) had stated only that she had learned that there were some troubling materials that may promote antisemitism contained within a larger mailout, and that she would be asking that the TDSB determine how these materials were permitted to be distributed, she would not have been found to be furthering anti-Muslim tropes and would likely not have violated the Code …”
Oh, those Jews, being so sensitive as usual. What about all the people who want to destroy their state but don’t actively want to kill them?
The TDSB was in the news a few weeks ago, when it wouldn’t allow an ISIS survivor to give a presentation to students for fear that it could stoke Islamophobia:
When the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) initially cancelled an event with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, the reason given was that such an event could foster Islamophobia.
Murad was invited to speak at a book club founded by Tanya Lee, where teen girls from various secondary schools hear from female authors.
But TDSB superintendent Helen Fisher expressed concern over Murad’s book The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, telling book club organizer that students should not participate in an event with the author scheduled for February.
[…]
Shocked by the exchange with Helen Fisher, Tanya Lee says she then sent her an email containing detailed information on the Islamic organization, coming from the BBC and CNN.
“This is what the Islamic State means,” she wrote to the superintendent: “It is a terrorist organization. It has nothing to do with ordinary Muslims. The Toronto school board should be aware of the difference.”
Ironically, I’d argue that the school board is, in its own way, guilty of Islamophobia.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims are peaceful, opposed to violence carried out in the name of their religion, and and the atrocities carried out by organizations like ISIS. There are, unfortunately, small-minded bigots who do believe the terrorists and radicals represent all Muslims, and the school board should teach students that this picture is untrue and defamatory.
Instead, they’re implying that ISIS and Palestinian terrorist groups actually do represent the Islamic faith, and that criticising them is attacking all Muslims. Who needs the likes of Robert Spencer and PEGIDA when a stultifyingly “progressive” school board is making the same arguments?
This whole scenario is just freakin' nuts. But maybe I'm misreading part of this. I think the deal about not letting the author speak to a group of students in a non-classroom setting is just plain stupid on its face. An informational flyer covering the who and the what of the talk could have been provided to parents so that if they had any concerns about anything regarding the appropriateness of the speaker, they could decide whether their daughters should attend or not.
But it sounds as if teachers are actually expected to "teach(?)"-or worse, propagandize- about a conflict that is rooted in antiquity, continues by the minute today, the dimensions, contours and facts of which are in a constant state of flux and continuously stump some of the best educated and experienced minds in the world as to a solution. To a bunch of 18-year-old-or-less kids? Who probably need a whole lot more time than they're already getting on non-political, mundane and boring stuff like math, science, and history that's older than last week's news? Am I reading that right? Or do I need to go back to school myself?
Thought wackadoodle school boards were pretty much a phenomenon found south of your border. But it sounds like y'all are engaged in a serious game of Keep Up With The Jonses.