[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CONFRONTING PERVASIVE ANTISEMITISM
IN K-12 SCHOOLS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD,
ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY EDUCATION
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 8, 2024
__________
Serial No. 118-49
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: edworkforce.house.gov or www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-462 PDF WASHINGTON : 2024
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina, Chairwoman
JOE WILSON, South Carolina ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT,
GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania Virginia,
TIM WALBERG, Michigan Ranking Member
GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin RAUL M. GRIJALVA, Arizona
ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN,
JIM BANKS, Indiana Northern Mariana Islands
JAMES COMER, Kentucky FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
LLOYD SMUCKER, Pennsylvania SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon
BURGESS OWENS, Utah MARK TAKANO, California
BOB GOOD, Virginia ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina
LISA McCLAIN, Michigan MARK DeSAULNIER, California
MARY MILLER, Illinois DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey
MICHELLE STEEL, California PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
RON ESTES, Kansas SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
JULIA LETLOW, Louisiana LUCY McBATH, Georgia
KEVIN KILEY, California JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut
AARON BEAN, Florida ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota
ERIC BURLISON, Missouri HALEY M. STEVENS, Michigan
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico
LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER, Oregon KATHY E. MANNING, North Carolina
BRANDON WILLIAMS, New York FRANK J. MRVAN, Indiana
ERIN HOUCHIN, Indiana JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York
VACANCY
Cyrus Artz, Staff Director
Veronique Pluviose, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
AARON BEAN, Florida, Chairman
GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon,
BURGESS OWENS, Utah Ranking Member
LISA McCLAIN, Michigan RAUL GRIJALVA, Arizona
MARY MILLER, Illinois GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN,
MICHELLE STEEL, California Northern Mariana Islands
KEVIN KILEY, California JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York
BRANDON WILLIAMS, New York FREDERICA WILSON, Florida
VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina MARK DeSAULNIER, California
DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on May 8, 2024...................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Bean, Hon. Aaron, Chairman, Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education........................ 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 2
Bonamici, Hon. Suzanne, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education............. 3
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
WITNESSES
Banks, David, Chancellor, New York City Public Schools, New
York City Department of Education.......................... 7
Prepared statement of.................................... 9
Silvestre, Karla, President, Montgomery County Board of
Education, Montgomery County Public Schools................ 11
Prepared statement of.................................... 12
Sykes, Emerson, Senior Staff Attorney, American Civil
Liberties Union............................................ 13
Prepared statement of.................................... 16
Ford Morthel, Enikia, Superintendent, Berkeley Unified School
District................................................... 24
Prepared statement of.................................... 26
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS
Ranking Member Bonamici:
NYC Department of Education's code of conduct entitled
``Citywide Behavioral Expectations to Support Student
Learning Grades 6-12''................................. 92
CNN article entitled ``Sheriff's office says antisemitic
messages in Jacksonville were not crimes''............. 212
ADL article entitled ``Hate in the Lone Star State:
Extremism & Antisemitism in Texas''.................... 219
Montgomery Advertiser article entitled ``Five or more
Jewish congregations receive bomb threats in Alabama''. 245
DeSaulnier, Hon. Mark, a Representative in Congress from the
State of California:
Letter of support dated May 3, 2024, from the Association
of California School Administrators.................... 143
Multiple letters in support of Superintendent Ford
Morthel from Jewish parents............................ 145
Williams, Hon. Brandon, a Representative in Congress from the
State of New York:
Comments from the Committee.............................. 249
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
Responses to questions submitted for the record by:
Mr. Emerson Sykes........................................ 251
CONFRONTING PERVASIVE ANTISEMITISM
IN K-12 SCHOOLS
----------
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and
Secondary Education,
Committee on Education and the Workforce,
Washington, D.C
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15, a.m.,
in Room 2175 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Aaron Bean
(Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Bean, Owens, McClain, Kiley,
Williams, Foxx, Bonamici, Sablan, Hayes, Bowman, DeSaulnier,
and Scott.
Also present: Walberg, Stefanik, Manning.
Staff present: Cyrus Artz, Staff Director; Nick Barley,
Deputy Communications Director; Mindy Barry, General Counsel;
Isabel Foster, Press Assistant; Daniel Fuenzalida, Staff
Assistant; Sheila Havenner, Director of Information Technology;
Amy Raaf Jones, Director of Education and Human Services
Policy; Julianne Jones, Intern; Georgie Littlefair, Clerk;
Hannah Matesic, Deputy Staff Director; Eli Mitchell,
Legislative Assistant; Rebecca Powell, Staff Assistant; Brad
Thomas, Deputy Director of Education and Human Services Policy;
Maura Williams, Director of Operations; Ari Wisch, Senior
Counselor to the Chairwoman; Brittany Alston, Minority
Operations Assistant; Ilana Brunner, Minority General Counsel;
Rashage Green, Minority Director of Education Policy & Counsel;
Christian Haines, Minority General Counsel; Stephanie Lalle,
Minority Communications Director; Raiyana Malone, Minority
Press Secretary; Veronique Pluviose, Minority Staff Director;
Jamar Tolbert, Minority Intern; Banyon Vassar, Minority
Director of IT; Samantha Wilkerson, Minority CBCF Fellow.
Chairman Bean. Ladies and gentleman, and a very good
morning. Welcome to your nation's capital. The Subcommittee on
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education will come
to order. A quorum is present. Without objection, the Chair is
authorized to call a recess at any time.
The Holocaust ended in 1945. The hate behind it has not.
Antisemitism is repugnant in all its forms, but the topic of
today's hearing is particularly troubling. It is hard to grasp
how antisemitism has become such a dominant force in our K
through 12 schools. Some kids as young as second grade are
spewing Nazi propaganda, which begs the question who has
positioned these young minds to attack the Jewish people?
The very need for this hearing is a travesty. The aftermath
of October 7th has revealed some of the ugliest, most deprived
ideas, once marginalized from polite society, and our education
system has failed to stop it. It is not just anti-Israel, it is
anti-American, it is anti-democracy.
Our witnesses today represent--three of our witnesses
represent some of the largest school districts in the Nation
where there has been some vile antisemitism in their districts.
Just a few minutes ago we heard from students, parents, and
even a teacher who said this is happening without an
appropriate or any response at all.
Jewish students in their districts fear riding the bus,
wearing their kippah to school, or just eating and breathing as
a Jewish student. Today we get to hear from the leaders of
these districts to tell us what are you doing, what are they
doing to keep students safe. New York City, and I just met Mr.
Banks, is the home to the largest, most vibrant Jewish
community in the Nation, so the stories coming out of the New
York City public schools are harrowing.
Reports that we have surface that students marched through
the halls disrupting class chanting, ``Kill the Jews.'' One
student was caught on a security camera appearing as Hitler
performing a Nazi salute. Three Swastikas were drawn on
teachers walls in 1 week. Antisemitism has occurred within
Montgomery County Public Schools. It hits close to home. It is
just 15 miles from here.
MCPS schools have been home to student walkouts, featuring
calls to kill the Jews, bring Hitler back, and what is worse,
the administrator's approved excused absences for the walkouts
in violation of district policy. Finally, Berkeley Unified
School District was thrust into the national spotlight in
perhaps the most public fashion of the group.
The allegations are most serious. While not exhausting the
details of the piece includes kids playing Nazi salute songs to
their Jewish classmates, chants of Kill Israel, and KKK, and
telling Jews to pick up pennies. In light of these reports, I
will tell you what my question is going to be to the
witnesses--what are you doing to keep students safe, and how
can we stop this?
How can we stop this? You have been accused of doing
nothing and turning a blind eye. We are going to give you a
chance to say exactly what you are doing, and what are you
doing to keep students safe. Middle and high school students
are hard enough. It is just hard enough being a kid in middle
and high school without the added fear of being Jewish.
I can hardly fathom sending one of my sons to school
knowing he will be exposed to violence, hate filled
discrimination, yet parents are faced every day with this
struggle. It does not have to be this way. This is the moment
for all of us to take a stand against hate, against the
indoctrination and radicalization of the next generation of
future leaders. With that, I yield to the Ranking Member for
her opening statement.
[The Statement of Chairman Bean follows:]
Statement of Hon. Aaron Bean, Chairman, Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
The Holocaust ended in 1945. The hate behind it did not.
I would like to start by saying that I find antisemitism to be
repugnant in all its forms, but I find the topic of today's hearing
particularly troubling.
It is impossibly hard to grasp how antisemitism has become such a
dominant force in our K-12 schools. Some kids as young as second grade
are spewing Nazi propaganda, which begs the question, who has
positioned these young minds to attack the Jewish people?
The very need for this hearing is a travesty. The aftermath of
October 7 has revealed some of the ugliest, most depraved ideas once
marginalized from polite society, and our education system has failed
to stop it.
It is not just anti-Israel. It is anti-American. It is anti-
democracy.
Three of the witnesses here today represent public school districts
that have allowed vile antisemitism to spread unchecked. Now, thousands
of Jewish students in their districts fear riding the bus in the
morning, wearing their kippah to school, or just eating and breathing
as a Jewish student.
You are here today to answer for your role in this national
tragedy.
Beginning with Mr. Banks, New York City is home to the largest,
most vibrant Jewish community in the nation, so the stories coming out
of New York City Public Schools are uniquely harrowing.
At your schools, students march through halls disrupting class and
chanting ``Kill the Jews.'' One student was caught by a security camera
appearing as Hitler and performing a Nazi salute. Three swastikas were
drawn on teachers' walls in one week.
Moving to Ms. Silvestre, the antisemitism that has occurred within
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) under your watch hits closest
to home--your school district is headquartered a mere 15 miles from
here.
MCPS schools have been home to student walkouts featuring calls to
``Kill the Jews'' and ``Bring Hitler Back.'' What is worse, the
administrators approved excused absences for the walkouts in violation
of district policy.
Finally, Ms. Ford Morthel, Berkley Unified School District was
thrust into the national spotlight in perhaps the most public fashion
of the group. The allegations are also among the most serious.
Franklin Foer penned a piece for The Atlantic titled ``The Golden
Age of American Jews is Ending,'' which details the horrific
experiences of Jewish children in your district.
While not exhaustive, the details of the piece include kids playing
Nazi salute songs to their Jewish classmates, chants of ``Kill Israel''
and ``KKK,'' and telling Jews to pick up pennies.
There are many issues precipitating these events that we will
discuss further, including antisemitic teachers, curriculum, and
unions. You control these things. The buck stops with you.
I will say one more thing, which is this: my heart goes out to
these Jewish students. Middle and High school are hard enough for kids
without the added fear of being Jewish. As a dad, I can hardly fathom
sending one of my sons to school knowing he will be exposed to vile,
hate-filled discrimination. Many parents are faced with this struggle
every day. It does not have to be this way.
This is the moment for all of us to take a stand against hate,
against the indoctrination and radicalization of the next generation of
our future leaders.
______
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. There is
no question that we must do more to combat antisemitism, not
just in schools, but everywhere. We must do more to protect
Jewish students and Jewish Americans who are threatened and
harassed and attacked because of who they are.
Every student deserves to feel safe and be safe at school.
At the same time, we must do more to address the rise in
Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination and hate as
well. I have said multiple times, I hope this Committee can
work together on constructive ways to address this scourge of
antisemitism.
I will express that hope again today, that we seek
solutions that recognize the seriousness, and scope of the
challenge, the importance of keeping students safe at school,
and the need to balance the civil rights of students to be free
from discrimination under Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act, with
the First Amendment right to free speech and expression.
This is the Education Committee, and I hope we will discuss
the important role of education and importantly, prevention. In
fact, at the top of the list on the Biden administration's U.S.
national strategy to combat antisemitism is to increase school-
based education about antisemitism, including the Holocaust and
Jewish American heritage.
Antisemitism is not a new problem. The ADL, the Anti-
Defamation League has been working on it for decades, and in
fact, they even have a center for antisemitism research. AJC,
the American Jewish Committee has an action plan, a toolkit for
public school administrators. Lesson plans and other teaching
materials are widely available through other organizations like
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Like New York, and several other states, my home State of
Oregon requires Holocaust and genocide studies with age-
appropriate curriculum available. I remember and thank my late
friend, Holocaust survivor Alter Weiner, who when he was in his
80's and early 90's told his story of survival to hundreds of
audiences and universities, colleges, middle schools and high
schools, places of worship, prisons and clubs, personally and
through his book, From a Name to a Number.
That is the kind of unforgettable education that makes a
real difference. May his memory be a blessing. I also want to
emphasize and emphasize strongly, it is important for leaders
to stand up to antisemitism no matter where it comes from.
Many of my colleagues claim to care about the rise in
antisemitism in this country, but when white supremacists
marched in Charlottesville, Virginia with burning torches and
chanting, ``Jews will not replace us,'' the President at the
time, Donald Trump, said they were very fine people on both
sides.
One of the participants of that Unite the Right Rally was
Nick Fuentes, a vile antisemite, who among other statements has
denied the scope of the Holocaust, while comparing Jews
exterminated in concentration camps to cookies being baked in
an oven. Former President Trump hosted Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-
Lago in November 2022.
General John Kelly, who served as then President Trump's
Chief of Staff, has stated the former President spoke favorably
about Hitler, including the statement that Hitler had done a
few good things. Just a few months ago Donald Trump had said,
``Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their
religion.''
Despite these persistent examples of comments that others
have called antisemitic, and continued relationships with well-
known antisemites, I have not heard one word of concern from my
colleagues across the aisle. In fact, what we have seen is
consolidation of support for the former President.
If my colleagues care about antisemitism they would condemn
and denounce these comments from the leader of their party. I
will offer my colleagues on the other side of the aisle the
opportunity right now to condemn these previous comments. Does
anyone have the courage to stand up against this?
Let the record show that no one spoke up at this time. I
look forward to the testimony and conversation today, again
with the hope that we can have a constructive dialog about how
to fight back against antisemitism, so all students can be
safe, and feel safe at school, whether that is a K-12 school, a
college or a university, and I yield back the balance of my
time.
[The Statement of Ranking Member Bonamici follows:]
Statement of Hon. Suzanne Bonamici, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
There is no question that we must do more to combat antisemitism--
not just in schools but everywhere. We must do more to protect Jewish
students and Jewish Americans who are threatened and harassed and
attacked because of who they are.
Every student deserves to feel safe and be safe at school. At the
same time, we must do more to address the rise in Islamophobia and
other forms of discrimination and hate as well.
I have said multiple times that I hope this committee can work
together on constructive ways to address the scourge of antisemitism.
I will express that hope again today, that we seek solutions that
recognize the seriousness and scope of the challenge, the importance of
keeping students safe at school, and the need to balance the civil
rights of students to be free from discrimination under Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act with the with the First Amendment right to free speech
and expression.
This is the education committee, and I hope we will discuss the
important role of education and importantly, prevention.
In fact, at the top of the list of the Biden Administration's U.S.
National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism is to ``Increase School-Based
Education about Antisemitism, Including the Holocaust, and Jewish
American Heritage.''
Antisemitism is not a new problem; ADL, the Anti-defamation League,
has been working on it for decades and in fact, they even have a Center
for Antisemitism research.
AJC, The American Jewish Committee, has an action plan with a
toolkit for public school administrators. Lesson plans and other
teaching materials are widely available through organizations like the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Like New York and several other states, my home state of Oregon
requires Holocaust and Genocide Studies, with age-appropriate
curriculum available. I remember and thank my late friend, Holocaust
survivor Alter Wiener, who when he was in his 80s and early 90s told
his story of survival to hundreds of audiences in universities,
colleges, middle and high schools, places of worship, prisons, and
clubs, personally and through his book, From a Name to a Number. That
is the kind of unforgettable education that makes a real difference.
May his memory be a blessing.
I also want to emphasize--and emphasize strongly--that it is
important for leaders to stand up to antisemitism no matter where it
comes from. Many of my colleagues claim to care about the rise of
antisemitism in this country. When white supremacists marched in
Charlottesville, Virginia with burning torches and chanted ``Jews will
not replace us,'' the President at the time, Donald Trump, said there
were very fine people on both sides.
One of the participants at that Unite the Right rally was Nick
Fuentes, a vile antisemite who among other statements has denied the
scope of the Holocaust while comparing Jews exterminated in
concentration camps to cookies being baked in an oven. Former President
Trump hosted Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022.
General John Kelly, who served as then President Trump's Chief of
Staff, has stated that the former President spoke favorably about
Hitler, including that Hitler had done ``some good things.''
Just a few months ago Donald Trump said, ``Any Jewish person that
votes for Democrats hates their religion.''
Despite these persistent examples of comments that others have
called antisemitic and continued relationships with well-known
antisemites, I have not heard one word of concern from my colleagues
across the aisle; in fact, what we have seen is consolidation of
support for the former President.
If my colleagues cared about antisemitism they would condemn and
denounce these comments from the leader of their party.
I want to offer any of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
the opportunity right now to condemn Donald Trump's previous comments.
Does anyone have the courage to stand up against this?
Let the record show that nobody spoke up at this time.
I look forward to the testimony and conversation today--again with
the hope that we can have a constructive dialogue about how to fight
back against antisemitism so all students can be safe and feel safe at
school--whether that is a K-12 school, a college or university.
I yield back the balance of my time.
______
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Ranking Member
Bonamici. Pursuant to Committee Rule 8-C, all Committee members
who wish to insert written comments into the record may do so
by submitting them to the Committee Clerk electronically in
Microsoft Word format by 5 p.m. after 14 days from the date of
this hearing, which is May 22, 2024.
Without objection, the hearing record will remain open for
14 days after the date of this hearing to allow such statements
and other materials referenced during the hearing to be
submitted for the official record. I note that the
Subcommittee, for the Subcommittee, there are members of
colleagues that are not a permanent part of the Subcommittee,
who may be waving on for the purposes of today's hearing.
Now let us get to the introductions of our distinguished
panel. Our first witness is Mr. David Banks, he is the
Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools for the New York
City Department of Education in New York, New York. The New
York City Public Schools is the largest, the largest system in
the Nation. He was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams on January 1,
2022, but he started his career as a school safety officer,
after which he began his first teaching job at PS, Public
School 167.
Chancellor Banks serves as Assistant Principal at PS 191,
before becoming a founding Principal at the Bronx School for
Law, Government and Justice. He is a native New Yorker, and
graduate of New York City Public School System. He holds a
bachelor's degree from Rutgers University and earned his JD
from St. John's University of Law.
Our second witness is Karla Silvestre, Silvestre, who is
the President of the Montgomery County Board of Education for
the Montgomery County Public Schools in Rockville, Maryland.
Ms. Silvestre was elected to her second 4-year term on November
8, 2022. She is currently serving a second term as President of
the Board of Education.
Ms. Silvestre's education policy experience began at the
University of Pennsylvania, where she worked at the Penn-Merck
Collaborative for Science Education, working as a teacher,
professional development and hands on science education in West
Philadelphia schools. She served as Vice President for Children
and Youth for a large nonprofit managing preventive school year
and summer youth programs.
Ms. Silvestre graduated from Florida State University with
a bachelor's degree in biology and received her master's degree
in education from the University of Pennsylvania. Greetings
from the Sunshine State, Ms. Silvestre. We are glad to see
where you are.
Let us yield to Ms. Bonamici for the introduction of a
witness.
Ms. Bonamici. I welcome to the Committee Mr. Emerson Sykes,
a Senior Staff Attorney with the American Civil Liberties
Union, who works on the speech, privacy and technology project.
He focuses on First Amendment free speech protections, and
among other things he previously served as a legal advisor for
Africa at the International Center for Nonprofit Law, and
served as an Assistant General Counsel to the New York City
Council.
Mr. Sykes holds a bachelor's degree in political science
from Stanford University, a master's in public affairs from the
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and a
Juris Doctorate from the New York University School of Law.
Welcome to the Committee, Mr. Sykes.
Chairman Bean. Our final witness is Ms. Enikia Ford
Morthel, Morthel, absolutely is--she is the Superintendent of
the Berkeley Unified School District in Berkeley, California.
Ms. Morthel is an urban educator and community activist with
over 21 years of experience. Aside from serving as
Superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District, she is a
Professor, Senior Lecturer at the Urban Education at Loyola
Marymount University. She is active in the community, serving
as a Board member for organizations such as 826 Valencia, West
Ed, and other nonprofit organizations with missions aligned to
hers.
She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Beta Sorority
Incorporated. Ms. Ford Morthel holds a bachelor's degree and
master's in education from the University of California at
Berkeley. Welcome to all our witnesses. We thank you for being
here and look forward to your testimony.
Pursuant to Committee rules, I would ask that you limit
each of your oral presentations to 5 minutes, a summary of your
written statement. Your full written statement is in the
record, but just like us up here, you get 5 minutes. That is
what our little timer system will do it. If by chance you go
past, I will give you a little time, and that is a great way to
say wrap it up.
I want to recognize you of your responsibility to provide
accurate information to the Subcommittee. With that, let us get
started. It is now a pleasure to recognize Mr. Banks for his 5-
minute testimony. Welcome, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF MR. DAVID BANKS, CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC
SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Mr. Banks. Okay. I hope I did not lose my time. Thank you
so much, again. Good morning, Chairwoman Foxx, Chairman Bean,
Ranking Member Scott, Ranking Member Bonamici, and
distinguished members of the Committee and the Subcommittee.
Thank you for inviting me to address the horrific rise in
antisemitism.
The No. 1 religious based hate crime in America. I also
want to thank Devorah Halberstam, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik,
Michael Cohen, and Reverend Jacques DeGraff for joining me here
today. Today I will share how we are confronting the scourge of
antisemitism in our New York City public schools.
The New York City school system, which is our Nation's
largest, is a community of over 1 million students and staff.
We speak over 180 different languages in our schools. Our
diversity, however, means that our classrooms are not insulated
from the global stage. Since October 7th, our students and
staff, Jewish and Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian, have
suffered immensely.
I too have felt deep pain, reflecting on my own two trips
to Israel, with the Jewish Community Relations Council. Again
and again, my mind has returned to my visit to Yad Vashem, a
profoundly moving experience for me. In the immediate aftermath
of October 7th, New York City Mayor Eric Adams made very
powerful remarks condemning the terror attacks.
I too sent messages to our school community strongly
condemning the heinous acts of Hamas. Words are not enough.
There have been unacceptable incidents of antisemitism in our
schools. When Jewish students or teachers feel unwelcome or
unsafe, that should sound the alarm for us all. I recognize the
urgency of addressing this crisis from my seat. As an educator
of 30 plus years, as the leader of the system nurturing the
next generation of New Yorkers.
It is not only my job to produce good readers and writers.
Our schools must also build good people. People who demonstrate
respect and appreciation for our shared humanity. When it comes
to routing out antisemitism, our public schools must be part of
the answer.
Let me tell you about our work to meet this moment, which
are focused on safety, engagement, and education. No. 1, safety
is a precondition for learning. I started my career as a school
safety officer, and my father was a proud decades long officer
of the New York City Police Department. Keeping schools safe is
in my DNA.
When antisemitism rears its head, I believe we must
respond, and we have. We have removed, discipline, or are in
the process of disciplining at least a dozen staff and school
leaders, including removing a principal in the middle of a
school year. We have suspended at least 30 students. We have
involved the NYPD when hate crimes are committed, and we
retrain all 1,600 principals on our discipline code to ensure
that it is enforced property.
Second, we have engaged dozens of partners to help us
design longer term solutions. My instinct as a leader in
moments of crisis is never to shy away from an issue, but
rather to lean into it to understand it better. New York City
is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, and
many of the Nation's foremost Jewish institutions, so we have
strengthened our relationships with these partners, which
include the UJA Federation, the JCRC, the Anti-Defamation
League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance, the
Jewish Children's Museum, Project Witness, and many more.
I also launched, for the first time in our history, an
interfaith advisory council, because we must model for our
students how to build bridges, engage in genuine dialog, and
share each other's pain in challenging times. Finally,
education. We cannot simply discipline our way out of this
problem.
The true anecdote to ignorance and bias is to teach. My own
children learned about antisemitism firsthand from our next
door neighbors who were Holocaust survivors in Teaneck, New
Jersey. As survivors pass on, and in light of current events,
the need for education becomes even more pressing. Our students
cannot grow up to view anyone as the ``other''.
In addition to covering the Holocaust in the 8th, 10th, and
11th grades, we are creating a robust Holocaust educator guide
with the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and we are building a brand
new curriculum highlighting the culture and contributions of
the Jewish community because the history of the Jewish people
extends far beyond the Holocaust.
We have also partnered with the Office for the Prevention
of Hate Crimes, and a new hate crimes curriculum. We have
expanded our antisemitism resources and workshops. Finally, let
me just say this. At New York City public schools, we are
focused on our charge to fight hate, and foster inclusion
through safety, engagement and education.
We are working hard, and we have a long way to go. There is
always more to do. I hope in New York we can be a candle in the
darkness. Thank you.
[The Statement of Mr. Banks follows:]
Statement of Mr. David Banks, Chancellor, New York City Public Schools,
New York City Department of Education
Good morning, Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Scott, Chairman Bean,
Ranking Member Bonamici, distinguished members of the Subcommittee, and
the honorable members who have waived onto this hearing today. Thank
you for inviting me to address antisemitism, the number one religious-
based hate crime in America. I am horrified at the resurgence of this
age-old hate, and, today, I plan to share concrete actions we are
taking at New York City Public Schools to confront the scourge of
antisemitism head-on.
As Chancellor of the New York City school system--our nation's
largest--my job is to ensure the safety and learning of nearly 1
million students. I am also tasked with supporting over 140,000 staff
members. Our community includes a wide range of faiths, nationalities,
and backgrounds. We speak, incredibly, over 180 languages in our
schools.
We have honored and uplifted this diversity for many years. For our
New York City Jewish community, the largest outside of Israel, that
means our schools observe major Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom
Kippur, and Passover. We provide kosher school food options. We
celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month. We do the same for the dozens
of other communities that make up the rich tapestry of New York City.
I believe our multiculturalism is a blessing. The whole world lives
in New York City. It is a phenomenon I experienced growing up in Crown
Heights, Brooklyn and later in Cambria Heights, Queens, both home to
many cultures and communities, including the Jewish community.
Our diversity, however, means that our classrooms are not insulated
from the global stage. On the contrary, they are steeped in it. For New
Yorkers, world events inevitably hit home.
Since October 7, our students and staff--Jewish and Muslim, Israeli
and Palestinian--have suffered immensely. They have experienced deep
pain, trauma, and fear--reactions I have heard directly from our
teachers, students, and families. I, too, have felt this mix of
emotions, reflecting on my own two trips to Israel with the Jewish
Community Relations Council. One cannot visit the Western Wall or Yad
Vashem without feeling profoundly changed. As a person of faith, these
trips deepened my appreciation of the Jewish religion, culture, and
experience.
In the immediate aftermath of October 7, New York City Mayor Eric
Adams, in whose administration I proudly serve, made powerful, poignant
remarks condemning the terror attacks, remarks that resonated with
Jewish communities both here and in Israel. I, too, sent a letter to
our staff, along with a social media statement to families, strongly
condemning the heinous attacks by Hamas. My team and I followed up with
multiple other communications promoting respect, including reminders
about our regulations around political activity in schools and a joint
statement with Mayor Adams denouncing hate speech.
Words are not enough. There have been unacceptable incidents of
antisemitism in our schools. I know just how distressing these
incidents are. They surface deep-rooted, generational scars;
antisemitism has impacted the lives and stories of every Jewish person
I know.
I recognize the unique urgency of addressing this crisis from my
seat, as the leader of the system responsible for nurturing the next
generation of New Yorkers. It is not only our job to produce good
readers and writers. We must also build good people, people who
demonstrate respect and appreciation for our shared humanity.
To meet this moment, we initiated a comprehensive plan focused on
the safety of our students and staff, engagement with our community,
and education as the long-term antidote to ignorance, bias, and
bigotry. In all three areas, we are taking strong, decisive action
because every student, family, and staff member deserves to feel
welcomed in our schools.
Let me begin with safety. Safety is our most fundamental
responsibility and a precondition for learning. I was a school safety
agent, teacher, and principal. Perhaps most importantly, I am a father
of four. I know we cannot have safe and inclusive schools if there is
no accountability when students or staff act inappropriately. When hate
or prejudice rears its head, we must respond--it is our legal
obligation under the Civil Rights Act. We have responded, facilitating
school leadership changes, suspending students when appropriate,
disciplining and removing staff, and involving the NYPD as necessary.
We also retrained all our approximately 1,600 NYC Public Schools
principals on our Discipline Code, including the need for tangible
consequences when this code is violated.
Ultimately, we are not going to suspend our way to inclusion and
acceptance. I believe that hate is learned--and to reverse it, we must
start a conversation. To that end, we have engaged dozens of Jewish and
Muslim partners, so that the communities most impacted by this crisis
have a seat at the table in designing solutions.
From the Jewish community, the organizations I have continued to
consult include the UJA Federation, the Anti-Defamation League, the
Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance, the Jewish Children's
Museum, Project Witness, and many others. I also launched an interfaith
advisory council because it is critical to demonstrate for our students
how to engage in meaningful dialogue and build bridges across
communities.
This work takes patience, thoughtfulness, and skill. It is not
easy. As I have told our educators, when crises occur, we cannot bury
our heads in the sand. This leads me to the final component of our
strategy: education. Education is the key to rooting out hate.
In collaboration with our longtime, highly regarded Social Studies
partner, Facing History & Ourselves, we have trained every middle and
high school principal--approximately 900 school leaders--on how to
navigate conversations on difficult topics, events, and issues, such as
antisemitism. We are requiring these principals to deliver this same
workshop to their staff this spring.
We are not only focused on how to have conversations either. The
content matters, too. As I have also told our educators, we cannot
inject our personal politics into the classroom. Nor can we abandon our
students to the falsehoods and vitriol of social media, especially at
such a young and impressionable age. Children--and for that matter,
many adults--are not getting their news from newspapers; they are
getting it from social media.
To ensure our students and staff have access to credible sources
and varied viewpoints about complex issues, we have expanded our vetted
instructional materials and resources focused on the Middle East
crisis, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Over the coming months, we are
providing an array of in-depth teacher workshops on these topics.
Additionally, in direct response to family feedback, we are building a
brand-new curriculum focused on the Jewish American community and the
myriad contributions American Jews have made to our country and world.
We must also educate about the Holocaust. It is state law in New
York-- it is the right thing to do. For a number of years, my family
and I lived next door to Holocaust survivors in Teaneck, New Jersey and
learned about their stories firsthand. As survivors pass on, it is
essential that we actively work to preserve the memory of this dark
chapter in our history. As Yom HaShoah earlier this week reminded us,
we must never forget. That is why we include the Holocaust in our
Social Studies curriculum in grades 8, 10, and 11 and why we are
currently creating a robust Holocaust teaching guide for our educators
in collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Of course, there is always more to be done, and this work is not
without its challenges. Leaning into these challenges is the only way
to make change. That is exactly what we are seeing in many of our
schools. We have had Jewish and Muslim students band together to write
solidarity statements. We have had schools connect with Jewish
organizations to partner on fighting hate. We have had teachers and
leaders rebuild trust in their communities after trust has been broken.
This is what it means to create a shared society in a city as
diverse as New York. This is how we foster respect, acceptance, and
empathy. This is how we are meeting this moment.
Thank you again to the Committee for inviting me to testify on this
critical topic, and I welcome your questions.
______
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much Mr. Banks. Ms.
Silvestre, you are recognized for 5 minutes. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF MS. KARLA SILVESTRE, PRESIDENT, MONTGOMERY COUNTY
BOARD OF EDUCATION, MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS,
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND
Ms. Silvestre. Chairman Bean, Ranking Member Bonamici, and
members of the Subcommittee, good morning. My name is Karla
Silvestre, and I am the President of the Board of Education for
Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. I appreciate the
opportunity to speak with you today about our efforts to
address antisemitism in our school system.
Let me begin by assuring the Committee the Board of
Education I lead is committed to combatting antisemitism, hate
speech, and racism, wherever and whenever we see it. I cannot
tell you we have gotten it right every time. As a Board, we are
committed to working with our administrators, and our community
to constantly improve our processes and our outcomes.
Montgomery County Public Schools is the 15th largest school
district in the country with 160,000 students, and nearly
25,000 employees. We are one of the most diverse districts in
the Nation, and our families and students come from every major
religion and ethnicity, and speak over 162 languages at home.
More than a third of our county residents are foreign born.
In Montgomery County we have an elected part-time Board of
Education with a governance and oversight role. The Board sets
the standard for achievement and accountability. Our core
mission is education. This is the lens through which we
approach our relationships with students, employees and the
community.
This is the perspective I bring to today's hearing. I also
bring the perspective of my history, when I was just 8, I came
to this country to escape the violence stemming from
Guatemala's Civil War. I became a proud U.S. citizen in 2007
and went on to be elected to serve on the Board of Education by
the citizens of Montgomery County.
I am also the parent of a student in our school system, and
incidents of antisemitism and hate based language are extremely
important to me. With that in mind, I know the Committee is
aware of recent press reports and public complaints around
antisemitic imagery, language and vandalism in our district.
Let me be clear, we do not shy away from imposing
consequences for hate based behavior, including antisemitism.
Our policies to initiate an investigation each time the school
system receives a complaint, or we witness particular,
antisemitic hate filled or racist language or actions.
There are a range of consequences for teachers and staff.
If our investigation finds a staff member cannot uphold the
employee code of conduct and support a safe learning
environment for all students, they will not remain in
Montgomery County Public Schools. Student discipline follows
the student code of conduct, and students' rights and
responsibilities.
We are taking affirmative steps to address antisemitism and
other forms of hate. First, in the past year we revised
policies and procedures to strengthen our response to
antisemitism, hate and racist behavior. Second, we have put in
place a clear reporting process and training for school leaders
and staff. We are empowering students and families to report
incidents of harassment, so that we can take action.
Third, we are working to prevent antisemitic incidents from
happening in the first place through education. We enhance the
curriculum throughout K to 12 to expand on topics related to
the Jewish experience.
Fourth, we are strengthening our relationships and
partnerships with our community. We participated in listening
sessions in synagogues, and this year 12 community
organizations joined us to form a hate bias advisory group to
support our collective effort to address hate-based speech and
incidents, including antisemitism.
Fifth, starting this summer, we will have mandatory hate
based training for all staff. In closing, antisemitism has no
place in Montgomery County Public Schools. The suffering caused
by antisemitism, hate and racism, interferes with students
learning and well-being. I want to do everything in my power to
make sure all students can pursue their education without
worrying about antisemitic or racist, or hate filled threats.
We will continue to evaluate our policies and our actions
to ensure all students and families, every single one of them,
feel safe, valued and welcome in our school system. I welcome
the opportunity to continue this important discussion. Thank
you.
[The Statement of Ms. Silvestre follows:]
Statement of Ms. Karla Silvestre, President, Montgomery County Board of
Education, Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Maryland
Chairman Bean, Ranking Member Bonamici, Members of the
Subcommittee, good morning. My name is Karla Silvestre, and I am the
President of the Board of Education for Montgomery County Public
Schools in Maryland. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you
today about our efforts to address antisemitism in our school system.
Let me begin by assuring the Committee that the Board of Education
I lead is committed to combating antisemitism, hate speech, and racism
wherever and whenever we see it.
I cannot tell you we have gotten it right every single time. As a
Board, we are committed to working with our administrators and our
community to constantly improve our processes and outcomes.
Montgomery County Public Schools is the 15th-largest school
district in the country, with over 160,000 students and nearly 25,000
employees. We are one of the most diverse school districts in the
nation. Our families and students come from every major religion and
ethnicity, and speak over 162 languages at home. More than a third of
county residents are foreign born.
In Montgomery County, we have an elected, part-time Board with a
governance and oversight role. The Board sets the standard for
achievement and accountability. Our core mission is education. This is
the lens through which we approach our relationships with students,
employees, and our community. This is the perspective I bring to
today's hearing.
I also bring the perspective of my history. When I was just eight,
I came to this country to escape the violence stemming from Guatemala's
civil war. I became a proud U.S. citizen in 2007 and went on to be
elected to the Board of Education by the citizens of Montgomery County.
I am also the parent of children in the school system, and
incidents of antisemitism and hate-based language are extremely
important to me.
With that in mind, I know the Committee is aware of recent press
reports and public complaints about antisemitic imagery, language, and
vandalism in our district.
Let me be clear: We do not shy away from imposing consequences for
hate-based behavior, including antisemitism. Our policy is to initiate
an investigation each time the school system receives a complaint or we
witness particular antisemitic, hate-filled, or racist language or
actions.
There is a range of consequences for teachers and staff, and if our
rigorous investigation finds that a staff member cannot uphold the
Employee Code of Conduct and support a safe learning environment for
all students, they will not remain in Montgomery County Public Schools.
Student discipline follows the Student Code of Conduct and Student
Rights and Responsibilities.
We are taking affirmative steps to address antisemitism and other
forms of hate.
First, in the past year, we revised policies and procedures to
strengthen our response to antisemitism, hate, and racist behavior.
Second, we have put into place a clear reporting process and
training for school leaders and staff. We are empowering students and
families to report incidents of bullying and harassment so that we can
take action.
Third, through education, we are working to prevent antisemitic
incidents from happening in the first place. We have enhanced the
curriculum throughout the K-12 experience to expand on topics related
to the Jewish experience.
Fourth, we are strengthening relationships and partnerships with
our community. We have participated in listening sessions in
synagogues. This year, 12 community organizations joined us to form the
Hate-Bias Advisory Group to support our collective effort to address
hate-based speech and incidents, including antisemitism.
Fifth, starting this summer, we will have mandatory hate-bias
training for all staff.
In closing, antisemitism has no place in Montgomery County Public
Schools. The suffering caused by antisemitism, hate, and racism
interferes with students' learning and well-being. I want to do
everything in my power to make sure all students can pursue their
education without worrying about antisemitic, racist, or hate-filled
threats.
We will continue to evaluate our policies and our actions to ensure
all students and families, every single one of them, feel safe, valued,
and welcome in our school system.
I welcome the opportunity to continue this important discussion.
______
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Ms. Silvestre, well
done. Mr. Sykes, welcome to the Committee. You are recognized.
STATEMENT OF MR. EMERSON SYKES, SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY, AMERICAN
CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Mr. Sykes. Thank you. Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member
Scott, Subcommittee Chair Bean, Subcommittee Ranking Member
Bonamici, and members of the Subcommittee, on behalf of the
ACLU thank you for the privilege of testifying today.
I want to start by acknowledging that today's topic,
confronting antisemitism is a gravely important one. By many
accounts, antisemitic incidents have been more common in recent
years, and Jewish colleagues and friends have been struggling.
I am close with the Law School Dean, and a New York City
Public High School Principal, both Jewish, who understand full
well the impact of antisemitism. These Jewish school leaders
are themselves being accused of antisemitism, or at least
failing to do enough to stop antisemitism in their school
communities.
They are truly in unenviable positions. These are deeply
complicated and confusing times. I have been invited here not
to opine on antisemitism, nor to condemn or defend my fellow
witnesses. Rather, I would like to use my time to make three
key points. First, I will briefly describe the First Amendment
and its key principles.
Second, I will describe how the First Amendment applies in
the schools. Third, I will suggest more productive ways to deal
with controversial speech. The text of the First Amendment is
short, so I will just read it. ``Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof, or bridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.''
As you notice, the very first word of the First Amendment
is Congress. You all are the stars of the show. The First
Amendment is primarily about restricting the government's
authority related to five related freedoms, religion, speech,
the press, assembly, and the right to petition.
Without government action the First Amendment does not
apply. This is why the First Amendment applies in public
schools, but generally not in private ones. Bert Newborn, a
legendary figure at the ACLU has described the poetry behind
the ordering of the five freedoms protected by the First
Amendment.
First, the government cannot regulate your religion. That
is what you believe, your thoughts, your ideas, and your faith.
Second, the government cannot abridge the freedom of speech.
Now you have gone from having an idea, to communicating that
idea to others around you.
Third, the government cannot abridge the freedom of the
press. Now you have gone from an idea, to speaking that idea,
to those who are within shot, ear shot, to using the press,
which really means publishing, or otherwise disseminating ideas
to a wider audience. Fourth, is the right of the people
peaceably to assemble. Now, you are not just thinking
something, or saying something, or writing and publishing
something.
Now you are gathering and mobilizing people around this
idea because people like to feel solidarity and share physical
and digital space. Fifth, is the right to petition the
government. This means that you have the right not only to have
an idea, not only to speak that idea, or to publish that idea,
and not only to galvanize people around this idea, but you have
the right to bring that idea to the seat of power to redress
grievances.
The First Amendment, looking closely at the text, can be
read as facilitating the journey from an idea to a movement.
Notwithstanding the strong protections of the First Amendment,
not all speech is protected. True threats, fighting words,
incitement and obscenity are categories of unprotected speech
that we allow the government more leeway in regulating.
What does all this mean in the K-12 context? The Supreme
Court has famously said that students and teachers do not lose
their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate. The Court
has also recognized that public schools necessarily have more
authority to regulate speech at school than the government
would normally have in other contexts.
The government can regulate official school content, like
curriculum, as long as its decisions are reasonably related to
a legitimate educational purpose. Authorities may punish
student speech only if it will lead to substantial disruption
within the school environment.
Outside school students' speech is fully protected by the
First Amendment. The First Amendment also protects the right to
access information, including a student's right to access
information through school library shelves. Despite this,
school board officials, lawmakers, and others across the
country have recently stepped up efforts to ban books from
circulation in libraries.
Government employees at work are generally not protected by
the First Amendment, but teachers do maintain their First
Amendment rights when they are outside of school, just like
students. Parents also have an important role to play in K-12
schools. Families may have the right to opt their child out of
select teachings, but no family has the right to control what
all children are allowed to learn, including content about
racism, sexuality, and gender expression.
Finally, I hope we can remember that when exposed to more
speech and more information we can and do change our minds. I
submit that between throwing up our hands and saying there is
nothing we can do to address controversial speech, and
excommunicating people because of what they have said or
thought, are all the good ideas for how schools and communities
can heal and grow together.
I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you
today.
[The Statement of Mr. Sykes follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Mr. Sykes. Ms. Ford
Morthel, you are recognized. Welcome to the Committee.
STATEMENT OF MS. ENIKIA FORD MORTHEL, SUPERINTENDENT, BERKELEY
UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, BERKLEY, CALIFORNIA
Ms. Ford Morthel. Thank you. Chairman Bean, Ranking Member
Bonamici, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for asking
me to participate in this critical conversation about
antisemitism in K-12 schools.
I hope to share the ongoing work we are doing in Berkeley
Unified, to oppose antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of
hate, and to provide every student safe, welcoming, and
humanizing classrooms during these challenging times.
My name is Enikia Ford Morthel, and I am the Superintendent
of Berkeley Unified School District. I am honored to be the
steward of the District's powerful mission to enable and
inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic
excellence, and make positive contributions to the world.
I grew up in Inglewood, California, and witnessed how
naturally brilliant and curious black and brown children,
thirsty for engagement, were trapped by a narrative that left
them misunderstood and often ignored. These experiences formed
the roots of my belief that schools must nurture the heart,
soul, purpose and intellect of each child.
In Berkeley Unified, we work to ensure that each and every
child is seen, valued and educated. We embrace this work every
day, and it is what called me to do this work in this district.
Berkeley is a small, diverse, urban school district, serving
around 9,100 students, in our 11 elementary schools, 3 middle
schools, and 2 high schools.
Many know that I often describe our students as our babies.
As young as 4, they are all someone's baby. Their most prized
creation. It is a privilege and an awesome responsibility to
serve them. Public schools reflect the values and aspirations
of their local communities. Berkeley is no different.
Our history of activism, social justice, diversity and
inclusion is alive and well today. We recognize the need to
teach students to express themselves with respect and
compassion. This is why we passed a policy against hate speech
last year. True equity and inclusion requires deep listening,
ongoing reflection, engagement, and continuous learning.
As I have engaged members of our Jewish community, some
have shared painful experiences of antisemitism. Antisemitic
incidents in our schools are never acceptable, and they are not
who we are.
The conflict in the Middle East has directly impacted our
schools. Students and staff have family and friends who died,
or were kidnapped during the October 7th Hamas attack, and many
have deep concern for what is happening in Israel. Berkeley
born Israeli American Hirsche Goldberg Poland was kidnapped on
October 7th.
Members of our community wear tape on their shirts with the
number of days he, and other hostages have been held captive.
Today is day 214. Other Berkeley students and staff have family
and friends who have died, been injured, are missing, or living
under horrific conditions in Gaza.
Most heartbreakingly, in both Israel and Gaza, the death
and suffering includes children. As educators, too often we are
called upon to address heart wrenching events that occur far
beyond the walls of our classrooms.
Our young students with ties to either Israel or Gaza, some
deeply traumatized by the horror they see and hear, sit side by
side in our Berkeley classrooms. They are friends. We work hard
to make sure they are all seen and all safe. Our babies
sometimes say hurtful things.
We are mindful that all kids make mistakes. We know that
our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we do not
ignore them when they occur. Within days of October 7th, we
began providing resources to our families and our educators
about how to support our children, and each other.
Since October 7th, the District has had formal complaints
alleging antisemitism arising from 9 incidents within our
jurisdiction. However, antisemitism is not pervasive in
Berkeley Unified School District. When investigations show that
an antisemitic event has occurred, we take action to teach,
correct, and redirect our students.
We do not publicly share our actions because student
information is private, and legally protected under Federal and
State law. As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not
true. Likewise, when an investigation shows that one of our
educators has crossed the line, we take appropriate action.
In California, personnel actions are also private and
legally protected, so a nondisclosure can again be confused
with inaction. We work proactively to cultivate respect,
understanding and love in our diverse districts, modeling how
to uplift and honor each individual that makes up the beautiful
fabrics of our schools.
This month for the third year, we are celebrating Jewish
American Heritage Month. We are a community with differing,
deeply held beliefs in this challenging moment, and it is and
can be uncomfortable. As I speak to you right now, our families
are packing school lunches, students are heading to bus stops,
and educators are turning on classroom lights.
Soon the bells will ring, and our students will begin
learning side by side. I look forward to this conversation this
morning, but I also look forward to getting back to them, our
babies, to do and continue to do the work that needs to be done
in Berkeley. Thank you.
[The Statement of Ms. Morthel follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Bean. Ms. Ford Morthel, thank you very much. Under
Committee Rule 9, we will now question witnesses under the 5-
minute rule. Put the clock on Bean, because I am going to begin
right now with just some opening yes or no questions to our
school district leaders. Mr. Banks, does Israel have the right
to exist as a Jewish state?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Silvestre.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes. Absolutely.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Ford Morthel.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes.
Chairman Bean. Is the phrase, ``From the river to the sea,
Palestine will be free.'' Is that antisemitic?
Mr. Banks. I think most Jewish people experience that as
antisemitic, and as such, it is not allowed in our schools.
Chairman Bean. You would say it is?
Mr. Banks. I would say it is antisemitic.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Silvestre.
Ms. Silvestre. It is if the intent is the destruction of
the Jewish people, yes.
Chairman Bean. It is. It is. I would say I would put you
down as a yes. Are you okay with that? A yes?
Ms. Silvestre. Yes.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Ford Morthel. You can just go yes or no.
Ms. Ford Morthel. It is if it is calling for the
elimination of the Jewish people in Israel, and I will also say
that I recognize that it does have different meaning to
different members of our community.
Chairman Bean. Yes. I will put you down as a yes. I have
got to boogie because 5 minutes goes by so fast. Were Hamas
actions on October 7th, was that a terrorist attack Mr. Banks?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Silvestre.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Ford Morthel.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes.
Chairman Bean. Is terrorist ever justified?
Mr. Banks.
Mr. Banks. I do not think so. Not terrorism, no.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Silvestre.
Ms. Silvestre. No.
Chairman Bean. Ms. Ford Morthel.
Ms. Ford Morthel. I would agree, no.
Chairman Bean. Congratulations, you all have--you all from
Florida, you all have all done a remarkable job testifying, but
just like some college Presidents before you that sat in the
very same seats, they also in many instances said the right
thing, but then we watched the TV monitors, and America watched
the monitors of their campuses on fire with hatred, really
reversing everything they said that they are protecting
students, and when they were really not.
This morning, I attended a gathering, a press conference,
just a chance for students and teachers and parents in your
school districts that have said nothing is being done, some
really horrible things. We have gotten reports in your school
districts across America, over 246 very vile antisemitic acts
that have happened.
Mr. Banks, what are you doing with teachers? Teachers that
are teaching hate? Have you fired any? Have you gotten rid of
any? What are your actions say because you are a man that has
his basis in school safety, and you have said that earlier, but
have you fired teachers in this?
Mr. Banks. Anyone that would suggest, I cannot speak for my
colleagues, but anyone who would suggest that we have not done
anything that is certainly not correct. We have done quite a
bit. Again, you have to remember, this is a very large system.
When incidents arise, we investigate every single one of them.
We take them very, very seriously.
We have taken a wide range of disciplinary actions on all
of these issues, and so----
Chairman Bean. Have students been fired, expelled?
Mr. Banks. We do not fire students.
Chairman Bean. Yes. I stand corrected.
Mr. Banks. We have given appropriate discipline. I said in
my opening testimony, a wide range of students who have been
suspended from school. We have taken action against employees.
We have terminated people as well.
Chairman Bean. You have terminated people?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Chairman Bean. Mr. Banks, thank you so much. Ms. Silvestre,
I met with one of your students this morning who, here is one
thing, bullies exist. Bullies exist, but this student has said
but for being Jewish, why he suffered, suffered physical harm.
Have you expelled students and teachers?
Ms. Silvestre. In terms of speaking first about teachers.
We have taken action in some cases. We put them [cut off] --
Chairman Bean. You have gotten rid of teachers? You said
they do not belong in Montgomery County Schools. You are
teaching hatred, and we are going to get rid of you. Has that
happened?
Ms. Silvestre. We have taken disciplinary action. Yes.
Chairman Bean. Have you fired anybody?
Ms. Silvestre. No.
Chairman Bean. With--so you allow them to continue to teach
hate. One of the teachers, one of the people in this--at this
meeting I gathered was one of your teachers. One of your
teachers, who is Jewish, who is scared for her life, and has
suffered greatly because she is reporting antisemitism on your
campus at one of your schools, yet she is the one that is
suffering. Are you aware of this?
Ms. Silvestre. I do not have all the details of that case,
but retaliation against teachers is not acceptable in our
school district.
Chairman Bean. You have not fired anybody. Do you think
people need to be fired if they are teaching hate, hatred, and
letting people?
Ms. Silvestre. Absolutely. As part of our process the
teachers that have been disciplined know that if this happens
ever again there will be deeper consequences up to and
including termination.
Chairman Bean. You are going to have to face these people,
and I am telling you they are fired up, and they have stories
that are heartbreaking, heartbreaking. It is hard enough to go
to school as a kid without suffering. It is just a shame. I
think we are better than this as a Nation. It is time to all
stand together.
I have got so many questions, and I will now yield to
Ranking Member Bonamici for 5 minutes.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much Chairman. Thank you to
the witnesses. As I stated in my opening statement, there is a
need to balance the civil rights of students to be free from
discrimination under Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act, with the
First Amendment right to free speech and expression.
I want to reiterate that we must stand together against
antisemitism and do more to combat the harassment of Jewish
students. First and foremost, we must support the Department of
Education's Office of Civil Rights. OCR is the primary office
for investigating and intervening in Title 6 violations, and
that is true both in K-12 schools, and on college campuses.
OCR continues to investigate a record number of incidents
of discrimination and hate, receiving more than 19,000
complaints in 2023. 2024 the office has already seen about a 26
percent increase in complaints. Despite those challenges and
increasing cases, OCR has only half the staff that it had when
it was established 45 years ago.
Half the staff, but a significant increase in the number of
cases. There is no question that more resources are needed to
hire additional staff and increase the capacity of the office
to fulfill its mission. Unfortunately, the Appropriations
Committee majority has proposed a 25 percent cut to the program
for Fiscal Year 2024.
We cannot cut a program when there is increased need, and
there is already only half the staff it had 45 years ago. Well
thankfully, this cut was not enacted, but as other members of
this Committee would agree, maintaining funding at the current
level is still not enough given the volume of discriminatory
instances in our Nation's school.
I am going to start with a question for Chancellor Banks.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Ms. Bonamici. What steps has your school system taken to
address antisemitism proactively before it becomes a problem?
For example, can you tell us more about your meeting the moment
plan, and the ways that it addresses safety, education and
engagement?
Mr. Banks. Yes. First of all, as we talk about safety
because we really start with that, and that is reinforced by
the fact that we take action in every single one of these
cases. Whenever an issue is brought to our attention, I cannot
State that I can prevent every incident from ever happening,
but our role as leaders are to make sure that once it is
brought to our attention that we respond in an appropriate
fashion, and that is what we have been doing.
Since this time, we have had 281 incidents since October
7th. Approximately 42 percent were antisemitic, and 30 percent
were Islamophobic. This is an issue that ranges on both sides.
We take every single one of those very, very seriously. We
investigate, and then we initiate the appropriate level of
conduct.
I have got a--this is our student code of conduct. It is a
40 plus page document that is been developed over many, many
years. We certainly would seek to enter this into evidence for,
or put this on the record for this Committee, but----
Ms. Bonamici. I ask that that be admitted into the record.
Chairman Bean. Without objection.
[The Information of Ms. Bonamici follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Banks. Thank you. There are a wide range of
disciplinary processes that take place. We also have to follow
a process of due process. Teachers are represented by unions,
they have rights, and we engage them in that process.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. I do want to get to the other
witnesses.
Mr. Banks. Sure.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much. I know you have all
expressed a desire to work with outside groups to address
antisemitism in your school district, so both Ms. Silvestre and
Ms. Ford Morthel, what is your approach? How do you anticipate
that it will help prevent issues of and instances of
antisemitism, please start with Ms. Silvestre, and then Ms.
Ford Morthel.
Ms. Silvestre. Our partnerships with our community
organizations bring expertise, cultural expertise, that maybe
some of our school leaders do not have, and so they help
enhance the work that we do with our, in this case, a hate bias
action plan. We have 12 different community groups from various
perspectives to make, to help us get it right.
We want to get it right, and these community groups will
help us do that.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you.
Ms. Ford Morthel.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Thank you. I would agree with Ms.
Silvestre that it is both bringing expertise, but it is also
bringing what I think is really important, the opportunity to
really listen and learn and understand different perspectives
and experiences.
That is something that we do in Berkeley that we really
value, and we do believe in the value of collective, coming in
and sharing different ideas, perspectives, and different ways
to address issues.
We truly believe that not just the expertise, and sharing
of experiences, but the collaboration, and bringing together of
different minds and hearts will lead us to the best way to
address it.
Ms. Bonamici. I am almost out of time, but in my remaining
35 seconds, Mr. Sykes, if you could just summarize what is the
interplay between Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act and the First
Amendment in schools?
Mr. Sykes. Sure. Thank you. The schools must act when there
is a hostile educational environment under Title 6. That means
there is unwelcome conduct based on a protected characteristic
that is subjectively, or objectively offensive, and so severe
or pervasive that it limits or denies a person's ability to
participate in, or benefit from an educational program.
The law is clear that these schools must act in those
situations, notwithstanding the tinker test that we described
before.
Ms. Bonamici. Do you agree that we need funding to do that?
Mr. Sykes. Absolutely.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much Ranking Member. We will
now go to the great State of Utah, Mr. Burgess, you are
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Owens. Thank you. First of all, thank you for the
witnesses for being here today. It is one thing to hear about
the bigoted behavior present on today's college campuses. It is
appalling to hear that teachers are doing the same in our
classrooms. Spreading the vitriol of hate to our children, and
classrooms throughout our Nation.
Unfortunately, and all too often these carriers of hate are
teachers and school administrators, and this is going down to
our kids they are supposed to be teaching. Children as young as
second grade are being taught to hate Jews. How did this come
about?
Mr. Banks, I have a quick question.
Mr. Banks. Sure.
Mr. Owens. In the press release shortly after the events of
Hillcrest High School where students stormed the building
demanding a teacher's resignation, and attempted to enter the
teacher's room where she said where she hid. You said this
notion that this place, these kids are radicalized, and
antisemitic is the height of your responsibility.
Do you think that these kids were not radicalized? Do you
stand by that statement?
Mr. Banks. First of all, let me say this. Hillcrest High
School is the school that I graduated from, so that school is
very personal.
Mr. Owens. I am sorry. I only have a few minutes. This
statement, do you still stand by this statement?
Mr. Banks. My statement at that time was that yes, I stand
by that statement. The entire school is not radicalized. Yes.
Mr. Owens. All right. If this is a black teacher, and these
are kids coming in because of her skin, because of her
background, hiding out for 2 hours in a classroom, these are
high school kids.
Mr. Banks. I know that.
Mr. Owens. Would you still say that this is not
radicalized? There is something wrong with this?
Mr. Banks. Those kids engaged--the kids who were
responsible who led that effort engaged clearly in an act of
antisemitism. I dealt with that in response to it.
Mr. Owens. I really have to cut to the chase. My question
is if this is a black teacher being threatened and pushed by
some white bigots, would you still say that these kids are not
a problem, that is it is not being radicalized?
Mr. Banks. No. If it was a black teacher that was being
targeted, absolutely unacceptable, and this was unacceptable.
We absolutely took action, including removing the principal of
the school.
Mr. Owens. I am sorry. Were there any consequences? I mean
I am hearing nice words, really nice words here, teaching,
redirecting, directing, what I am missing is discipline, and I
am missing the word ``fired.'' Has anything happened to these
kids that did this? This teacher is hiding out for 2 hours.
Mr. Banks. Well, I am not sure if you heard clearly from
what I said. What I said was very clear. We suspended a number
of students who were the leaders at Hillcrest High School, No.
1. No. 2, we removed the principal of that school for a lack of
leadership and oversight. I do not know how to make it much
clearer.
I condemn clearly what happened at Hillcrest was a complete
act of antisemitism. It will not stand on my watch. We
responded, and I do not know how to make it any clearer.
Mr. Owens. Okay. Thank you so much. I am glad to hear that
somebody was fired in that. Was the principal fired, or just
transferred to another school?
Mr. Banks. The principal was removed from the school.
Mr. Owens. Was he taken to another school?
Mr. Banks. He is not in another school. No. He is not in
front of any more children.
Mr. Owens. Okay, okay. Ms. Morthel, the Brandeis Center as
reported at most, misguided administrators have attempted to
resolve problems involving teachers by moving students, Jewish
students and Israeli students into new classes. As a result,
antisemitism, antisemitism is normalized.
A quick question. How does this work? You find teachers
that are bigots, and instead of firing them you transfer them
to another school where they can still remain bigots? Is that
the way this works?
Ms. Ford Morthel. I am a little confused by the question.
You start with students being moved, and then you went to
teachers being moved. I will tell you that it is not something
that we normalize. It is not something that we agree with, and
we take action every time, if there is any concern.
Mr. Owens. Okay. Yes. I am just trying to understand how
this works. When you have teachers that are teaching hate to
our kids, and showing it, and our students are feeling fearful
for this, are they fired, or are they just transferred to
another school? It appears that they are just moving to another
place.
In this case here, yes, I guess that is the question that I
have. How is this being resolved?
Ms. Ford Morthel. If we have a concern or a complaint about
antisemitism, or any form of hate we take it very seriously. We
investigate and we take action pending the outcome of that
investigation.
Mr. Owens. Okay. All right. I guess the action is not
firing them, it is just moving them someplace. The word action
is very subjective, obviously. Ms. Silvestre, real quickly,
there have been several complaints filed by the Department of
Education of Civil Rights, and again what resulted in what
administrative leave, and the three others merely being
transferred.
I am going to ask you the same questions. How is this
working out? Do we have a process in which you actually get bad
teachers out of the classroom, bad administrations that are
teaching our kids to hate like this? Are you addressing that at
all?
Ms. Silvestre. In all of those cases the teachers were put
on leave, so that we could do a thorough investigation.
Disciplinary action was taken.
Mr. Owens. I guess I am just concerned. We want results. We
want discipline. We see what has happened to our kids, and we
are not taking out the cancer, which is these teachers coming
in, and administrators that's pushing down their hate.
Every day in these classrooms is a bad day for our kids, so
are we getting rid of any of these people, or just taking
action, other actions?
Ms. Silvestre. Disciplinary action has been taken in all of
those cases and they understand any other further action will
lead up to termination.
Mr. Owens. Okay. My time has expired.
Chairman Bean. Representative Owens, thank you very much.
Let us go to the great Northern Mariana Islands where Mr.
Sablan is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good
morning to our witnesses. Welcome. This is a really difficult
issue. It is an issue difficult for me also because it has
happened in my District in the past, but in my observation, and
I visit schools very frequently, on almost every trip I take
home.
I do not see that existing in our schools, and there is a
diversity of different ethnicities, different people. I am not
sure why. There may be something in there, there has got to be.
There is bullying I am aware of. I have two teachers in my
family, there is bullying. I am not sure about antisemitism, or
Islamophobia. There must be, but it is not obvious.
I have to ask a question of Mr. Sykes for starters, may I
sir? Institutions that are owned or acting on behalf of the
government and the State, such as K12 school, must respect
Constitutional free speech of individuals, but that does not
mean that some schools must allow their campuses to become
institutions for hate speech if it is pervasive.
Given the First Amendment speech protections, how can a
public school work to make its campus a welcome space for all
students in the face of the incidents of hate speech, of any
kind on campus generally?
Mr. Sykes. Thank you. As the only noneducator on the panel.
I will do my best to answer, but I think the work of creating
an inclusive environment where students feel free to express
themselves, and to learn and grow happens long before any of
these particular incidents.
I think it is a part of establishing a school community
that is accepting and welcoming. As I said, we at the ACLU
believe strongly in the importance of protecting the free
speech rights of students, of teachers, and of parents, but
those are not unlimited. As I mentioned, Title 6 says that the
schools must act when there is a hostile educational
environment.
If I can just respond to the previous questions, it does
not say that someone must be fired. I think we need to think a
little bit more creatively about how we can respond to
antisemitism and root out this idea.
Mr. Sablan. I do not want anyone fired, sir.
Mr. Sykes. Firing may be appropriate in certain
circumstances, but I think we need to think about how we can
address antisemitism, change hearts and minds, make children
safe, without only looking to the most punitive tool in our
toolbox.
Mr. Sablan. I yield my remaining time to Ms. Manning. Thank
you. I yield.
Ms. Manning. Thank you, Mr. Sablan. First, I want to thank
you all for your testimony and your condemnation of
antisemitism and the steps you are taking. As we all know, we
are facing a particularly difficult time for Jewish students
and their parents.
I have talked with Jewish students in my District, who are
experiencing antisemitism in North Carolina. This is
traumatizing kids, it is distressing parents, it is putting
pressure on teachers and principals and superintendents. I feel
strongly that this can be a powerful teaching moment.
This is the time when schools should do what we expect them
to do. They should teach. They should teach the facts. They
should teach understanding. They should teach empathy, and they
should teach critical thinking skills. Many students--many
teachers, rather, are struggling to figure out how to handle
the different kinds of antisemitism that is going on.
Not only to teach the Holocaust, but also in discussing
what is going on in the Middle East. Sadly, some teachers are
simply getting the facts wrong, and they are adding to the
distress of students and parents.
I would like to start and I am going to have to pick up
when my time picks up later, if each of you could describe what
resources are your teachers using to navigate the difficult
questions about antisemitism, or the Israel Gaza conflict? Mr.
Banks, let us start with you.
Mr. Banks. I know we only have a short amount of time, but
this is where we engage our partners. I am joined today by
Devora Halberstam, who is here, whose son Ari was killed in one
of the most heinous acts of antisemitism, almost 30 years ago.
She created the Jewish Children's Museum to teach the
history. I have sent thousands of students to this museum, and
we were going to continue to send even more. I am joined by
Michael Cohen from the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance.
They are in our schools. They have gone to Hillcrest, and they
are engaged in this process.
We are trying to avoid just casting aspersions, we are
trying to lean in to how you teach. That is how you will solve
for antisemitism.
Ms. Manning. Thank you. My time--this time has expired. I
will be back later, thank you so much.
Chairman Bean. Let us go to the great State of Michigan,
where Representative McClain is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. McClain. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I just have to make
one comment, Mr. Sykes, therein lies the problem. Your ability
to tolerate this behavior is completely unacceptable, and
sometimes you do need to use the stick because disincentives
work.
With that, I was just appalled by that answer, but at any
rate. Mr. Banks, I appreciate your passion. I love it. It is so
refreshing to see. I am going to ask a couple questions. I
think they are really simple, but then I want to move to
outcomes, and what we can do to actually make change, because I
think you said something very inciteful.
We need to get to the root of the problem and change the
curriculum, and change how we teach, right? I am assuming you
are going to agree with me, but let me just--``Death to
Israel,'' is that antisemitic?
Mr. Banks. Of course it is.
Mrs. McClain. Of course. ``Kill the Jews.'' Antisemitic?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Mrs. McClain. Absolutely. Drawing swastikas or mimicking
Hitler, is that antisemitic?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely. A hate crime in New York, yes.
Mrs. McClain. Of course. All of these activities are
antisemitic, vandalism of school property, right? Rioting, we
agree on that, right? We talk about taking action, right?
Action is a vague term, so let us move from actions to outcomes
because sometimes when we take action, we do not get the
desired outcome we appreciate, or we want, right?
Mr. Banks. Sure.
Mrs. McClain. Let us take a look at what actions you have
taken, and what has been the result of reducing the
antisemitism in your schools?
Mr. Banks. Let me give you an example. An example of what
was raised was Hillcrest High School, very passionately brought
up. My alma mater that I went to where a Jewish teacher was
targeted in a frightening episode. We did not accept that. We
pushed back on that tremendously.
Mrs. McClain. Can you give me an example of pushback,
because to me pushback is that those people are dealt with
swiftly, but what is your definition of pushback?
Mr. Banks. In terms of outcomes, what I meant was we
suspended students, we removed the principal of the school, we
engaged the Simon Wiesenthal Center for a deeper dive into
education of those kids. The teacher who was targeted made a
decision, I think one of the most heroic things I have ever
heard, to actually come back.
She could have gone to another school. She made a decision
to say if I am going to change this----
Mrs. McClain. You fired the people? You fired the----
Mr. Banks. Yes. We moved people, absolutely. The outcome is
that what is happening at that school now has transformed in
significant ways. We are not fully arrived. This is a work in
progress.
Mrs. McClain. I get it. I get it. What have you done to
change your curriculum?
Mr. Banks. Yes. We have engaged in a wide range of new
resource guides teaching about antisemitism, and teaching about
the Holocaust.
Mrs. McClain. What are those resource guides?
Mr. Banks. Excuse me?
Mrs. McClain. What are those resource guides?
Mr. Banks. The resource, we are working together with the
Museum of Jewish History.
Mrs. McClain. Okay.
Mr. Banks. In New York City, who is helping us to create an
educated guide for teachers.
Mrs. McClain. I would offer one solution as well, because a
lot of times we come up here and we just talk about problems.
One solution is Morris Life does a really good job of teaching
antisemitism, and really ruling out hate around the Holocaust
and what not.
I think where everyone gets frustrated is we use these
words like pushback, and I think we have to have a real clear
definition of if X happens, if you vandalize school property,
if you perform antisemitic acts, then here is a clear policy
that will be dealt with swiftly and justly. Am I hearing you
say today that those policies are in place?
Mr. Banks. Those policies are in place. Here is the
challenge.
Mrs. McClain. Okay.
Mr. Banks. These things do not always come down to so clear
yes and no. I will give you an example. We had a school where a
teacher hung up a map of the Middle East that eliminated Israel
from the map. The question is, is that antisemitic? To me that
is antisemitic, and we had it removed.
Others have said did you fire her? She said essentially, I
made a mistake. I did not intend it to be antisemitic, and she
had a reason for it.
Mrs. McClain. Just a moment. How do your administrators
respond to students that ignore authority, right? I think we
have three perpetrators here. We have the students, we have the
teachers, and we have the administrators, right?
Mr. Banks. Right.
Mrs. McClain. I think all three of those people need to be
dealt with, and need to be dealt with swiftly and justly, so
with that I apologize, I am out of time, but I would like to
see your written response to how you deal with antisemitism as
it pertains to those three entities, students, administrators
and teachers.
Mr. Banks. Sure.
Mrs. McClain. With that, thank you Mr. Chairman. I yield
back.
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. From the great State of
California, Representative DeSaulnier is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank
the witnesses. Sorry, we were having a conversation, a
collegial conversation here. Let us start by everything,
everyone in this room I believe agrees to and you stated,
antisemitism is unacceptable.
All students deserve to be free from hate and be safe to
learn and thrive. We need to support all students who are being
threatened on school campuses and stand against all forms of
hate. Any student who feels unsafe, or discriminated against,
deserves to have their case investigated, and the Department of
Education's Office of Civil Rights should take all credible
claims seriously and investigate.
Superintendent, I am a neighbor. I represent the district
just to the east of Berkeley. I used to own a business in
Berkeley. I love the atmosphere in Berkeley, the openness, but
it does create certain frictions, openness, I think you would
agree. Is that happening right now? Is the Department of
Education investigating civil rights complaints?
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes. There is an open investigation now
from the Office of Civil Rights for Berkeley Unified.
Mr. DeSaulnier. You are cooperating with that fully,
correct?
Ms. Ford Morthel. We are fully intending to cooperate. We
just received the letter yesterday actually informing us
officially of that complaint, and we do see it as an
opportunity to reflect and grow and continue to move toward our
mission and values.
Mr. DeSaulnier. You and your Board have done everything to
reasonably stop a complaint from coming, and you believe that
the process will show that?
Ms. Ford Morthel. We believe the process will show that.
Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I would like to
insert into the record letters from Berkeley parents and
community members, teachers, detailing the difficulties that
schools face in addressing the war in Gaza, and in support of
the Superintendent and the Board to build and maintain a safe
and learning environment.
There are also letters from Jewish parents about Berkeley
Unified School District's support for Jewish students. I would
like to submit that for the record.
Chairman Bean. Without objection, so ordered, without
objection.
[The Information of Mr. DeSaulnier follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. DeSaulnier. Mr. Emerson cites the balance between free
speech and protecting students is what we are challenged by.
Justice Holmes and Justice Brandeis wrote about this
extensively. Justice Holmes talked about screaming fire in a
crowded room. Justice Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the
Supreme Court, talked about the antidote to this. I am
paraphrasing, to challenges of irrational fear is more speech,
not less speech.
Could you talk to a little bit of that? He actually has a
quote where he talks about the threat of violence alone, and I
am quoting from him now from memory, ``Should not stop free
speech.'' In that quote, he talked about men burnt women as
witches, and we cannot condone that either.
This balance that Brandeis and Holmes struggled with all
those years ago, is your forte. How are we balancing that right
now?
Mr. Sykes. Thank you. The rules that apply according to the
Constitution and statutes differ whether you are in a crowded
movie theater, or in a public square, or in a K-12 school. In
the context that we are talking about today, on the one hand we
have robust protections for the free speech rights of Velez.
The Supreme Court has also said you do not lose your
Constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates.
You have the right to hold your opinions, to share your
opinions, so long as they are within the bounds of the school
context. The school must act, as I have said, when there is a
hostile educational environment. A lot of what we are dealing
with today is how have schools responded in those situations. I
think as a husband of a public school teacher, and the parent
of public school students, I understand that when they make
mistakes, we do not send them to their room. We try to help
them understand what they have done wrong.
We try to help them understand the impact that they have
had on others, try to figure out how to make the people who
have been harmed feel whole, and try to change behaviors in the
future. I know that good teachers and administrators across the
country are doing their best to do that now, and this is the
everyday work of schools.
Trying to nurture students, trying to help them grow, while
also making them safe.
Mr. DeSaulnier. Do you believe listening to testimony of
your fellow panelists today that they are doing that?
Mr. Sykes. I can only assume that they are doing the best.
Mr. DeSaulnier. I find it interesting that some of the
members of the Committee are prejudging, for instance, the case
in Berkeley, at the same time we have a court case in New York
about people complaining about being prejudged in that one. I
think really what I hope comes out of this conversation today,
and continues in the spirit of bipartisanship, is that we all
again say that hatred in any form, particularly in schools, is
completely unacceptable from the U.S. Congress.
That we would adhere to the laws as they are, and if there
is something wrong with them, we would work together to correct
that. Thank you, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much Representative. Let us
stay in the great State of California, and Representative Kiley
is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is it Dr.--I am sorry, I
am having trouble reading your last name, Ford. Yes, Ms. Ford.
I do not know if we have an answer to you as to whether there
have been any professors terminated at your school for
antisemitic words or conduct?
Ms. Ford Morthel. The answer was that I am not able to
speak about personnel matters, but what I can say to you is we
investigate every complaint and concern thoroughly and
thoughtfully, and we take action.
Mr. Kiley. Sure. I am not asking you to give us names or
anything, but can you just tell us in general has anyone been
terminated?
Ms. Ford Morthel. In general, I can say to you that I can't
speak about personnel matters, but I can tell you that we do
up, and we take action.
Mr. Kiley. I am pretty sure your colleague, Mr. Banks, gave
us an answer, so you cannot?
Ms. Ford Morthel. I respect and appreciate that, but I am
not going to be able to do that. I can let you know that again
when any issue comes up, we investigate it, and pending the
outcome of that investigation, we do take action. Those actions
range.
Mr. Kiley. Okay. Thank you. You gave us a statement in your
testimony where you said that any suggestion or assertion that
antisemitism is pervasive in BUSD, that is your district, is
false. However, the Brandeis Center and the Anti-Defamation
League have, as we mentioned, filed a complaint.
For the sake of brevity I will read from their release,
summarizing what is in it. It says incidents include students
repeatedly hearing antisemitic comments in classrooms and
hallways, such as ``Kill the Jews.'' Non-Jewish students asking
Jewish students what their number is, referring to numbers
tattooed on Jews during the Holocaust.
Jewish students being derided for their physical appearance
and demonized as evil. Students have also had to endure
antisemitic teacher rants and class activities, teacher
promoted walkouts and praise Hamas, and even a second-grade
teacher leading a classroom activity, or children were writing,
``Stop bombing babies'' on sticky notes to display in the
building.
Jewish students report being worried about mob violence,
including being jumped at school. Many have said they remove
their Stars of David, and no longer wear Jewish camp t-shirts.
They are learning to keep their heads down, hide their Judaism,
and move through their school days in fear.
Some students have left the district due to pervasive
bullying. Parents have repeatedly reported antisemitic
incidents to the administration, but the USD has done nothing
to address, much less curtain, the hostile environment. The
eruption of antisemitism in Berkeley's elementary and high
schools is like nothing I have ever seen before, said Kenneth
Marcus, Chairman of the Brandeis Center, and former U.S.
Assistant Secretary of Education.
You testified today, any suggestion or assertion that
antisemitism is pervasive at the USD is false. My question is
if you are not willing to acknowledge the problem, why can we
be confident that it is being adequately addressed?
Ms. Ford Morthel. You can be confident that I am there in
my schools every day, in the schools and the classrooms with
the babies. I am very clear that antisemitism, there have been
incidents of antisemitism in Berkeley Unified School District,
and every single time that we are aware of such an instance, we
take action and we up, and we take appropriate action at that.
Mr. Kiley. Okay. Can I ask you about the Israel Palestine
curriculum that has been introduced in some classes in the wake
of October 7th? Did you approve this curriculum?
Ms. Ford Morthel. We do have a controversial policy that
says if something is instigated or incited by our students,
which was the case with this, that our teachers can respond.
Yes, in response to both student interest and parent interest,
sorry, parent interest to discuss this in our classrooms, we
did have a group of teachers who did try to create lessons to
respond to the moment and engage our students in conversations.
Mr. Kiley. You approved it? You approved the curriculum?
Ms. Ford Morthel. That our teachers did create. Yes.
Mr. Kiley. Okay. If one of the slides in this curriculum
said for some Palestinians from the river to the sea is a call
for freedom and peace, and then cited a supported quote from
Congresswoman Tlaib, who was censured by this body in a
bipartisan vote. Do you think that is an appropriate thing to
have on the slide for students?
Ms. Ford Morthel. What was on the slide? Say it again,
please.
Mr. Kiley. It said for some Palestinians from the river to
the sea is a call for freedom and peace. Do you think that is
appropriate?
Ms. Ford Morthel. We definitely believe that it is
important to expose our students to a diversity of ideas and
perspectives. If it was presented as a perspective, I do think
it is appropriate.
Mr. Kiley. You do. You think, I mean, I think is it any
wonder, you said earlier you thought this was antisemitic, and
you know, you put this on a slide in the classroom, and then
students go around the halls saying it. I do not think there is
anything surprising about that.
I wanted to also ask you about the ethnic studies
curriculum you have, because I think you contract with a group
called The Liberated Ethnic Studies Consortium, is that right?
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes.
Mr. Kiley. This consortium as I understand it grew out of
the initial working group from California's model ethnic
studies curriculum, and the original version of that was
universally condemned as antisemitic. 14 members of the
legislature, all Democrats, said it is difficult to fathom why
the State of California would want to actively promote a
narrative about Jews that echoes the propaganda of the Nazi
regime.
Even Gavin Newsom said the curriculum was offensive in so
many ways it would never see the light of day. It was revised,
but this Liberated Ethnic Studies Consortium was those--offers
the original version of it. They split off through the group
and said we are going to stick with the original antisemitic
version, and that is the version that you went out and decided
to have in your classrooms. Is that right?
Ms. Ford Morthel. That is actually incorrect, Congressman.
I thank you for the opportunity to clarify.
Mr. Kiley. Okay, please.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Berkeley Unified School District has not
purchased any curriculum from Liberated Ethnic Studies
Consortium. In fact, our ethnic studies curriculum is created
in house if you will. We pride ourselves on having----
Mr. Kiley. Oh, I am sorry. Maybe I misunderstood you. I
thought you said you contracted with the Liberated Ethnic
Studies Consortium.
Ms. Ford Morthel. We have Liberated Ethnic Studies as a
thought partner. Our teachers and our staff and our community
members actually create our curriculum, so we are not
purchasing or buying any curriculum from Liberated Ethnic
Studies.
Mr. Kiley. I do not understand what the difference between
a thought partner and working with them on curriculum is.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Oh, for sure I can explain it to you.
Liberated Ethnic Studies is one of two experts in the field of
ethnic studies that Berkeley Unified School District evaluated
to partner with. Our curriculum, our units that are being
created, the ethnic studies units, are created by our
educators, in partnership with community members, et cetera.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much. My time has expired, but I
will just say, Mr. Chair, that you specifically chose to work
with a group whose work product was rejected by political
leaders throughout California as antisemitic, and so I do not
think it is any wonder then that you see antisemitism suddenly
become rampant.
Chairman Bean. The gentleman's time is expired.
Mr. Kiley. Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. Let us go to the great
State of New York, Representative Bowman, you are recognized
for 5 minutes.
Mr. Bowman. Thank you so much. Chancellor Banks, you did
not just roll out of bed and become a Chancellor. Your
background is not only in school safety, but you were also a
classroom teacher, and you are also the founder of two highly
regarded high schools, the School of Law, Government and
Justice, in the Bronx, and the first all-male school in the
Bronx as well, the Eagle Academy for Young Men.
I want you to speak to us briefly about the curriculum that
is being implemented in New York City schools to address the
issue of antisemitism and all hate. Please be as concise as
possible because I have at least two more questions to ask.
Mr. Banks. Sure. Thank you so much for the question. No. 1,
teaching about the Holocaust, first of all is required by New
York State Law, it is important to know. We also covered the
Holocaust in grades 8, 10, and 11, and our social studies
curriculum, as well as in a range of our ELA classes, including
literature, like the Diary of Anne Frank, Night, and many other
literary pieces.
We are also now working on the Holocaust resource guide,
which is going to be available this fall in collaboration with
the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The thing I think we are really
super excited about is we are developing a very robust
comprehensive curriculum, new curriculum, it is going to be
about a year before it is ready to go that is going to cover
the entire range of Jewish history.
Children need to understand deeply about the history of the
Jewish people if we ultimately want to solve for this issue of
antisemitism.
Mr. Bowman. I appreciate that, because that was going to be
my suggestion because Jewish history did not start with the
Holocaust.
Mr. Banks. It is beyond the Holocaust.
Mr. Bowman. The entire persecution that our kids need to
learn about. There is also a part of history where the Jewish
people and Muslims and Christians lived together in harmony in
the Middle East in different parts of the world, and I want to
suggest you teach that as part of the curriculum as well.
Mr. Sykes, can you talk about the distinction between
antisemitic speech and speech that expresses solidarity with
Palestinians, or criticisms of Israel? Why is it dangerous to
conflate the two?
Mr. Sykes. Thank you. The ACLU has spoken out against the
Antisemitism Awareness Act, not because we have any problem
with antisemitism awareness, obviously, but because it
incorporated a definition of antisemitism that includes
criticism of Israel. Just as it is totally legitimate to
criticize the U.S. Government, or U.S. Government officials
without necessarily casting aspersions on any particular
individual, the government of Israel is certainly subject to
criticism just like all others.
Where that goes into ethnic based hatred, or targeting of
particular individuals, obviously schools and communities can
and should respond. The right to dissent against our government
and against others is core to free speech.
Mr. Bowman. Thank you so much. I just have a closing
comment to make. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for
your testimony and thank you for your clarity around when you
identified antisemitism, you respond swiftly and decisively
because it needs to be condemned, and it needs to be handled
accordingly.
I appreciate you all for being here and sharing that with
us. What I am going to ask of you because I have been very
disturbed by some of the language that has come from the other
side of the aisle, language around teaching hate. Our teachers
and our schools are not teaching hate, the majority of them.
When I say majority, I mean 99.9 percent. I am a former
educator in New York City schools, I have never seen that.
Teachers make mistakes, and teachers need to be educated and
disciplined when necessary, when they do make those mistakes.
Yes or no question, just going down the line starting with Mr.
Banks.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Mr. Bowman. Can we fight against antisemitism, and other
forms of hate simultaneously, yes, or no?
Mr. Banks. Not only can, we must.
Mr. Bowman. Okay.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes.
Mr. Sykes. Yes.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Of course.
Mr. Bowman. Yes. It is really important because there has
also been reports in the rise of Islamophobia, in New York City
schools, and across the country. Do you all agree with that,
yes or no?
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes.
Mr. Sykes. Yes.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes.
Mr. Bowman. Yes. Does sexism still exist in our society?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes.
Mr. Sykes. Of course.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes.
Mr. Bowman. Does anti-black racism still exist in our
society?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes.
Mr. Sykes. Yes.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes.
Mr. Bowman. We must fight hate in all its forms at the same
time. I have Members of Congress talking about teachers
teaching hate, none of them have an education background by the
way, it is all about teachers teaching hate. I work in
Congress. When you go in the rotunda and you look at American
history, you see colonists coming in, and taking over America
from the Native Americans.
There is no reference to the black people who built this
country in our rotunda, but we are scolding you about teaching
hate. Do you know how many black statues there are in the
Capitol? Three. Do you know how many confederate statutes there
are in the capital? Twelve.
I work in an institution that teaches hate and with our
policy. We are scolding you as educators who have been doing
a--statutory role, thank you,--yet we are scolding you as
educators who have been doing an exemplary job fighting against
hate in our schools, so thank you for your work, please
continue to educate us.
Chairman Bean. Let us stay in the State of New York where
Mr. Representative Williams, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Williams. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
holding this critically important and timely hearing. I believe
it is the moral issue of our time. When I was elected to
Congress less than 2 years ago, I was alarmed that threats of
violence against synagogues, Jews, and Jewish institutions were
on the rise.
In March of last year as one of my first legislative acts,
right here in this very room, I introduced an amendment to
House Bill Number 5, requiring and I quote, ``It is the sense
of Congress that all public elementary schools and secondary
school students should have the opportunities to learn the
history of the Holocaust and antisemitism.''
All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good people
to do nothing, and 7 months before the horrific events on
October 7th, this Committee had the opportunity to speak up and
take steps to prevent the growth and spread of antisemitism by
educating our children.
Every single one of my Democrat colleagues voted against
that amendment. Every single one. We submit to the voting
results for the record. Now, out of the other sides of their
mouths they pretend to be outraged, yet they do nothing. On
October 7th, Hamas announced that it was open season on Jews in
Israel.
Mr. Banks, kids in your school district got the idea that
it was okay to have open season on Jews in New York City public
schools. Instead of a reduction in antisemitic events in your
schools, in the wake of this profound immorality of a Holocaust
like massacre of Jews, we have seen an explosion of shocking
antisemitic events.
Mr. Banks, now you say that you are leaning in on
combatting antisemitism. Have the episodes of rape and murder
of October 7th been presented to your students of examples of
Jew hatred?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely. Heinous events on October 7th,
antisemitic, and they have been taught now in our schools, and
are continuing to be taught across many of our schools.
Mr. Williams. Is the former principal at Hillcrest still
drawing a salary from New York City Public Schools today?
Mr. Banks. Yes, he is.
Mr. Williams. I am sorry. Can you say that again?
Mr. Banks. I said yes, he is.
Mr. Williams. You are still paying the former----
Mr. Banks. He is no longer the principal of the school.
Mr. Williams. How can Jewish students feel safe at New York
City Public Schools when you cannot even manage to terminate
the principal of an open season on Jews high school, or even
endorse suspension of student harassment? How can Jewish
students go to school knowing that he is still on your payroll,
your payroll, sir?
Mr. Banks. I know whose payroll it is, sir, and it is not
open season on Jews school. It is called Hillcrest High School.
That is the name of the school, and at that school we
considered his leadership, not strong enough to be the leader
in that school.
Mr. Williams. Wow. He is still strong enough to participate
in your school district. He is still strong enough to be on
your payroll?
Mr. Banks. He is no longer in a school as the leader of
that school.
Mr. Williams. Is he still strong enough a leader to be on
your payroll, sir?
Mr. Banks. Every one of the----
Mr. Williams. Is that what you are saying? You are
endorsing him to continue on your payroll.
Mr. Banks. Actually, has due process rights.
Mr. Williams. He has the moral authority to lead students.
Is that what you are saying, Mr. Banks?
Mr. Banks. That is just what I said is what I just said.
Mr. Williams. That is what you are saying. You are saying
he still has the moral authority to be on----
Mr. Banks. I did not say that. That is what you said.
Mr. Williams. That is what I am asking you. You are
justifying his continued employment.
Mr. Banks. That is not correct.
Mr. Williams. I am trying to challenge how can that be?
Mr. Banks. Every employee who works in our schools has due
process rights, sir.
Mr. Williams. Due process.
Mr. Banks. We do not have the authority just because I
disagree to just terminate someone.
Mr. Williams. There are egregious crimes.
Mr. Banks. That is not the way that it works in our school
system.
Mr. Williams. There are egregious crimes that have been
committed under your watch. I want to give you the opportunity.
We have 1 minute remaining, to speak directly to the parents of
Jewish students in New York City. As Jewish--think of this, as
Jewish parents walk their children to school tomorrow morning,
what can we say? What should they say to their children to
allay their children's fears?
How should they reassure their children that this
antisemitic nightmare in your school, sir, has come to an end?
Please?
Mr. Banks. I speak to Jewish parents on a regular.
Mr. Williams. Great. Speak to them now.
Mr. Banks. I am speaking to them now.
Mr. Williams. Cameras are rolling right here, speak to them
now.
Mr. Banks. I speak to Jewish teachers and parents and
families every day.
Mr. Williams. What do you say?
Mr. Banks. Every single day.
Mr. Williams. What do you say?
Mr. Banks. What I say to them is that we do everything that
we can to ensure that your child, or that you even as a
teacher, are going to be safe in our schools. We do not always
get it right. Part of the reason that happened at Hillcrest
High School was what I considered a lack of proper supervision
in that school.
That is why the principal was removed from the school, so
the teachers in that school are not unsafe. We removed the
leader of the school.
Mr. Williams. My time has expired. I doubt very much that
they are comforted that this nightmare is over under your
leadership.
Mr. Banks. I am sorry you feel that way.
Chairman Bean. Let us go to the great State of Connecticut,
where Representative Hayes is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Hayes. Thank you and thank you to our witnesses for
being here today to testify. I would just like to say that I
agree with my colleague that those who have committed egregious
crimes should not have the moral authority to lead a school, or
a nation.
Also, as an educator, I just--I do not know what people
think it is that teachers do. I do not know what people think
it is that teachers inside of a classroom, or people who choose
this as a profession do. I acknowledge and recognize that there
has been an unprecedented rise in antisemitism in our K-12
schools.
We have had multiple hearings on this Committee and the
full Committee, in this full Committee on antisemitism. As an
educator, I remind you that we have to teach children that all
forms of hate are unacceptable. I listened to my colleague go
down the list of all of the things we deal with, that teachers
deal with in schools.
I can remember. I mean the only parallel I have is I am not
in the classroom right now, but I remember after September
11th, going to my department head and saying we need some
professional development on the Muslim experience. I need to be
able to support our students, and make sure that other students
understand their perspective.
We had parents come in describing this is what this holiday
means. We had students come in saying this is why I wear a
hijab. Really doing a deep dive and helping students to
understand the background and perspective of their peers. We
are doing a disservice to students if we are not teaching them
about the backgrounds and perspectives of all people.
Teachers have the impossible job of bringing students
together from different races, religions, ethnicities,
socioeconomic backgrounds, into one classroom and creating a
space where all students feel safe. I really hope that on this
Committee that we spend some time really looking at these
intersections between what is happening in our classrooms, so
that kids--it is a lot harder to hate someone that you know.
It is a lot harder to diminish or devalue someone's
experience when you know what it means, or why a person
practices a certain religion, or whatever. According to
research conducted by the ADL Center on Antisemitism Research,
there is a direct relationship between deficiencies in
Holocaust education, and heightened prejudicial antisemitic
beliefs.
Ms. Silvestre, in your testimony you mentioned that your
district is taking affirmative steps to address antisemitism,
and other forms of hate by enhancing the curriculum for K-12
students to expand on topics related to the Jewish experience.
Can you tell us a little bit about what your district has done
to enhance the curriculum, and additionally, why you believe
the teaching of this education is important?
Before you answer, I just want to add one thing about the
comment about members of this Committee not voting for--
Congress does not set curriculum, you do, so can you let us
know what you have done to make sure that students understand
the Jewish experience?
Ms. Silvestre. Yes. Curriculum, teaching and learning is
the bread and butter of what we know how to do well. We have
been looking to have our social studies curriculum better
reflect our student population, and we have enhanced our Jewish
experience education, starting, going younger, going into the
elementary grades, training teachers, so that they could
implement Holocaust education in 6th grade.
Training, as I mentioned in my statement, for the first
time we are having hate bias training starting this summer for
all staff, 25,000 employees in our school system.
Mrs. Hayes. Do you think it would be important for students
to understand why a statement like, ``From the River to the
Sea, Palestine will be Free,'' could be harmful to some of
their peers, or why displaying a map in the classroom that does
not have the State of Israel could be hurtful and antisemitic
to their friends, because that is what kids are. Their friends
around them.
Ms. Silvestre. Absolutely, Congresswoman. That is our role
is to educate them on the history, so that they can understand
why our Jewish students might find that phrase antisemitic.
Mrs. Hayes. Thank you. Ms. Ford Morthel, can you--it was
not your testimony, it was actually Mr. Bank's testimony where
he talked about, we cannot suspend or expel our way out of this
problem. Can you talk to us about some of the direct actions
that you have taken when these things do occur?
It has been my experience as an educator that often times
young people repeat what they have heard from other people at
home, and really do not understand the consequences, or the
history behind what they are saying or doing.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to
respond. I appreciate you saying that. First and foremost, we
do believe our role is to educate, and so we engage our
students in conversation. We want to make sure that our babies
can actually evaluate and reflect on their actions and their
words, to think about their intent, and also to think about the
impact.
Conversations are something, a tool that we use as
educators a lot. We also believe in restorative conversation,
so that students sit with their peers, who they have hurt or
caused harm to, to hear from them and their perspective about
what happened, and why it was hurtful. All of these are efforts
to again change and redirect and correct behavior.
Then of course education. We talk to students about
history, about how and why, for example, the term that you just
used might be hurtful to other students when they hear it.
Again, that is what we believe is really the way to change
behaviors for the long run, not a short-term solution, but one
that could actually keep in step with them as they get older.
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. The gentlelady's time
has expired. Let us go to the great State of New York again
where Representative Stefanik is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Stefanik. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Banks,
there has been many questions on Hillcrest, and I just want to
make sure it is very clear for the record. The principal of
Hillcrest High School is still employed by the Department of
Education, correct?
Mr. Banks. Correct.
Ms. Stefanik. What is his role?
Mr. Banks. He has been serving in a role working on one of
the teams, under one of our Deputy Chancellors.
Ms. Stefanik. I am told that he is Director of Teacher
Development and Evaluation. Is that accurate?
Mr. Banks. That I do not know his official title right now,
I would have to doublecheck that.
Ms. Stefanik. That is concerning to me that you have him in
a senior position, and what is very concerning about these
hearings is that we are getting lip service, but a lack of
enforcement, a lack of accountability. These rules and policies
matter, whether it is teachers, administrators, or students
violating the rules.
I want to switch to Origins High School. In October, 40 to
50 students marched through Origins High School chanting,
``Death to Israel,'' and ``Kill the Jews.'' In addition, an
independent investigation found that a teacher who teaches
global history, was told by a student, ``I wish you were
killed.'' Another student called her, ``A dirty Jew.''
The student said he wished Hitler could have hit more Jews
including her. What disciplinary actions have been taken
against those students who chanted ``Death to Israel'' at
Origins High School, and against the student who harassed, with
antisemitic slurs that teacher?
Mr. Banks. Two things. First of all, when we have done our
investigation we have found no evidence that there was any
movement through the halls saying death to the Jews. We looked,
and I treat that very, very seriously. That was reported in the
papers. We have found no evidence that that actually happened.
What we have found a wide range--deeply troubling
antisemitic things that have happened at Origins High School.
This is the one case that has troubled me the most,
Congresswoman, I will tell you that.
Ms. Stefanik. What are the enforcement actions?
Mr. Banks. I am trying to tell you. We have in fact
suspended a number of students at that school, but currently
this case now is under litigation, and I am being advised not
to speak to the specific things that have happened there. Just
know that I visited that school after these allegations have
come up.
I met with parents, families, staff, students--I am deeply
troubled by what has happened there, and we are going to get to
the bottom of it. I cannot say more because it is now under
litigation.
Ms. Stefanik. You understand our concern though as
policymakers when we have witnesses testify whether it is
Columbia University, Penn, Harvard, or New York City
Chancellor, when there is a lack of enforcement and
accountability, that there is a set of rules, but that
individuals who violate those rules are not held accountable.
Mr. Banks. We have held a lot of people accountable. That
was part--you were not here when I gave my opening statement.
Ms. Stefanik. You did not, you said you fired the
principal, and it turns out the former principal of Hillcrest.
Mr. Banks. I never said I fired the principal.
Ms. Stefanik. You did. A member, you can check the
testimony. Ms. McClain asked if you fired her, you said yes.
Mr. Banks. I fired the principal of who?
Ms. Stefanik. Hillcrest.
Mr. Banks. I never said I fired the principal. You check
the record. I never said that.
Ms. Stefanik. I will check the record. I will check the
record.
Mr. Banks. I said removed the principal.
Ms. Stefanik. Mr. Banks, Mr. Banks, she said, has he been
fired? You said yes, and then we moved on.
Mr. Banks. I did not say that.
Ms. Stefanik. You did. You said he was removed.
Mr. Banks. I would beg to differ on that.
Ms. Stefanik. We now know though that he is still employed
by the Department of Education.
Mr. Banks. He is no longer at the school. He has been
removed from his position as the principal of the school. That
is not the same thing.
Ms. Stefanik. Now he is employed at the Department of
Education, you testified to that.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Ms. Stefanik. You also said--I believe we have been told he
is Director of Teacher Development and Valuation, and you are
not sure if that is the case? Our expectation is we will get an
answer by the end of today whether that is the case or not.
Mr. Banks. You will. Absolutely.
Ms. Stefanik. My next question is there have been multiple
teacher-led anti-Israel walkouts during school time. What are
the consequences for those teacher walkouts, and do those
violate the policy of DOE?
Mr. Banks. I am not sure what teacher walkouts. We have had
a number of walkouts of students out of school, including
several of our high schools, which are also very troubling for
me.
Ms. Stefanik. What disciplinary action was taken in that
case?
Mr. Banks. The challenge that we have in that case is we do
not have any rules within our code of conduct that will prevent
a child from actually walking out of the school. When they walk
out of the school they are marked absent, they are essentially
cutting from school.
There are consequences for cutting school, and we notify
the parents.
Ms. Stefanik. It is your testimony today that there was no
teacher involvement in those walkouts because independent media
reports say that there is teacher involvement in those
walkouts.
Mr. Banks. I do not have any evidence of that. We have
evidence of one where the principal assigned a teacher to go
with a student to a protest, completely inappropriate. That
principal was disciplined, the teacher was disciplined in that
particular case.
Ms. Stefanik. What was the form of the discipline?
Mr. Banks. I am not at liberty to tell you, there is a very
specific--they were not fired, but we have a wide range of
discipline that takes place in those cases, and we did take
action.
Ms. Stefanik. My last question is you had a teacher at
Gotham Tech High School in Queens, and you have spoken out
publicly against this. He posted images of a Hamas paraglider
to his social media, repeatedly refers to so-called Israel,
again this is highlighting a Hamas paraglider who slaughtered
Jews.
We all have seen the horrific footage of those who cooked
babies. These are terrorists. What disciplinary action was
taken against this teacher?
Mr. Banks. Again, action was taken. First of all, I want to
just say, I think what that employee did is absolutely
disgusting, absolutely disgusting
Ms. Stefanik. What action?
Mr. Banks. We took action.
Ms. Stefanik. What was the action?
Mr. Banks. I cannot give you the specifics on the action
that was taken.
Ms. Stefanik. Yes, you can. You are in front of Congress,
what is the action.
Mr. Banks. I cannot give you on this specific employee.
Ms. Stefanik. You can give us the answer, you choose not
to.
Chairman Bean. The gentlelady's time has expired.
Ms. Stefanik. That is unacceptable.
Chairman Bean. Time has expired. Let us go to the great
Commonwealth of Virginia, Representative Scott, very good. Let
us go to the great State of North Carolina, Representative
Manning, you are recognized.
Ms. Manning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to set the
record straight. Mr. William's amendment that he mentioned
followed the failure of every Republican on this Committee to
vote for my amendment to prohibit the banning of books on the
Holocaust, which I offered because schools in many states are
banning books like the Diary of Anne Frank, which is an
incredible tool for teaching students about the perils of
discrimination.
Mr. Banks, I was pleased to hear that your schools are
still teaching the Diary of Anne Frank. Ms. Silvestre, I am
pleased to hear your description of the training your teachers
are getting to infuse your K through 12 schools with teaching
about what antisemitism is, and why it is so dangerous not just
to Jews, but to our whole society.
Ms. Ford Morthel, can you talk about the resources you use
to train your teachers about antisemitism?
Ms. Ford Morthel. Yes. We have a number of resources that
we use in Berkeley. One, first and foremost, just to unite us
against hate. In November we celebrate Unite Against Hate month
and week and have a number of resources that equipped our
educators with facilitating conversations with our students
about what hate is, what it looks like, and just the impact of
hate.
The fact that at Berkeley Unified, we stand firmly against
hate. We also have a number of curriculums. Our social-
emotional learning curriculums for our students that talk about
harassment, and bullying, how to be an ally, and just how to be
in community.
Our upper grades, particularly our 10th grade educators do
have curriculum on the Holocaust, but to the point of a
previous Congressman, that is not the beginning or the end of
the story of Jewish people. We also integrate curriculum
throughout our grade levels with texts and readings about the
richness of the Jewish heritage, and Jewish culture in our
schools.
Then generally, I just want to make sure that our teacher's
pedagogy, their approach to teaching, is really about centering
diverse ideas and needs of the students, and bringing those
ideas to the center so that they can engage in those critical
conversations, and come to truths and understanding on their
own.
Ms. Manning. Thank you. Let me suggest the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum has many readily available resources to teach
about the Holocaust, and the history of antisemitism. They are
formulated specifically for K through 12 classrooms. They are
available online. They have courses your teachers can attend
during the summer.
It is a wonderful resource, and I highly recommend using
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In fact, I have introduced
a bipartisan bill, The Countering Antisemitism Act, which
includes in it opportunities and frankly, obligations for
schools across the country to work with the U.S. Holocaust
Museum, teaching antisemitism, teaching what hate does to all
of us.
I hope that all of my colleagues on this Committee will
cosponsor my Countering Antisemitism Act, it is a bipartisan
bill, and it is important that my colleagues on this Committee
do more than just talk before the cameras about antisemitism,
but actually sign on to a bill like the Countering Antisemitism
Act, so that we can actually do something and build the
structures to combat that.
Now, an important pillar of the U.S. national strategy to
combat antisemitism, which was issued for the first time ever
by President Biden. An important issue of that is media
literacy. We know that many students are exposed to harmful
misinformation online every day, by social media, which in many
cases has inflamed tensions and led to antisemitic incidents.
In fact, I recently viewed a video on Tik-Tok that was
probably the most horrifying thing I have heard. A young person
talking about why it's appropriate to hate Jews. I would like
to ask each of you, how are your schools teaching young people
to check their sources, to be savvy, critical consumers of
online content because that is one way that hate is being
spread.
Mr. Banks, can I start with you?
Mr. Banks. Yes, please. It is a very, very complicated
issue. We actually have a social media policy. Every one of our
schools gets a level of training in digital literacy, so that
they understand how to think critically through these issues.
That is easier said than done.
What we are seeing in our schools, and in fact many of
these cases of antisemitism are a result of young people not
fully developing their ability to process what they are seeing
on social media, and then emotionally responding to that in a
way, particularly students of Muslim and Arabic background who
are seeing horrific acts happening themselves and are
responding to that. It is a difficult ongoing process.
Ms. Manning. Ms. Silvestre, any thoughts, in 13 seconds?
Ms. Silvestre. It is my understanding that the social media
literacy is taught in our health curriculum, and also just as a
critical thinking strategy throughout all of our classes.
Ms. Manning. Thank you. I would encourage all of you to do
everything you can to figure out how we teach our students to
be critical thinkers, and then maybe they will teach their
parents how to be critical thinkers. Thank you so much for your
testimony. I yield back.
Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. Let us go to the great
State of Michigan, Representative Walberg, you are recognized
for 5 minutes.
Mr. Walberg. I thank the Chairman. I thank the panel for
being here. I am sorry I had to leave. I was speaking at a
quick luncheon--I did not get the lunch--for a number of higher
education institutions. An important time to speak to them as
well. I was not here for the question I believe that my
colleague, Representative Stefanik asked about the principal at
Hillcrest.
We had checked ourselves after hearing your response, Mr.
Banks, seeing some of the room shaking their head strongly that
this person was not as a principal removed, and did go on in
the New York education system. We came to find information that
this person went to the New York Department of Education, am I
correct on that?
Mr. Banks. What is the question again? I am not sure? That
he----
Mr. Walberg. That he is the principal from Hillcrest.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Mr. Walberg. That you said was removed.
Mr. Banks. Right.
Mr. Walberg. Did not go in--was not just transferred to
another school in the system.
Mr. Banks. Right.
Mr. Walberg. We want to check on that because I saw
indications in this room that that was not the right answer.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Mr. Walberg. He went to the New York Department of
Education as I understand it?
Mr. Banks. Well, all of our schools come under the
Department of Education. I oversee the Department, the entire
Department of Education. We have schools, and then we have
other administrative offices.
Mr. Walberg. Yes. Well, that concerns me that this guy is
still in education in New York, when he had an egregious
response at Hillcrest, and so I just wanted to make that clear.
Mr. Banks. I understand.
Mr. Walberg. Make sure I understood it as well.
Mr. Banks. He was removed from the school, but he is still
an employee.
Mr. Walberg. He is still in education, New York.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Mr. Walberg. That worries me.
Mr. Banks. I understand.
Mr. Walberg. Following the attack on Israel on October 7th,
our Nation's institutions of higher education have been rocked
by antisemitic protestors. We are talking about, and direct
harassment of Jewish students. While a critical eye must be
placed on the teachings and policies at these institutions, we
cannot overlook our K-12 system, and so thanks for holding this
hearing today.
In fact, we know that the teachers that had been trained in
our higher education institutions to be change agents in the
world are in our K-12 systems, and they have been for years
been trained to be antisemitic themselves. Critical theories
that they have been trained in, oppressor and oppression.
Important as well, anti-American. It is a challenge that we
have to look at our K-12 system. It is during this
developmental phase that students start to grasp the difference
between right and wrong, and critically begin to realize that
other people have their own feelings that might not match
theirs. If we fail students at this scholastic phase, then it
is no wonder we are seeing the level of intolerance, and
violent rhetoric later in their studies, and even in our K-12
system.
I recently met with educators who have used the Morse Life
Holocaust Learning Experience to help educate their students
about the realities of the Holocaust and the antisemitism
history, and I encourage our institutions to look into that
training.
I would like to pose for our educators in the room just
this one question and answer as briefly as possible. What have
you done specifically to teach critical thinking in classrooms,
and promote reason, and the underpinnings of moral and civil
behaviors that mitigate hate? I guess I will start, because I
have a W for a name, I will start at the end of the table
first.
Ms. Ford Morthel.
Ms. Ford Morthel. Thank you, Congressman. This is something
that we integrate in our instruction starting from the youngest
of grades. First of all, we engage our students in open ended
questions, and prompts that allow them to bring their ideas to
the table. Then we share information with them as well, but we
are not a direct teach type of organization.
That is one way that we facilitate and actually build our
students muscle to be critical thinkers, and critically
engaged. We have norms in our classroom. For example, we talk
to our students about being present, being respectful, being
brave, being open and being aware to different perspectives,
being flexible and being sensitive, so it is a muscle they
build throughout their grades at Berkeley Unified School
District.
Of course, we teach them to be critical consumers and
evaluate and analyze the information that is coming to them
through a number of perspectives, so that ultimately again they
can make decisions on their own.
Mr. Walberg. We will hope we see the impact of that in an
exemplary way.
Ms. Silvestre.
Ms. Silvestre. Yes, similarly I am not a teacher or
principal or superintendent myself. As a school board member,
it is my understanding that we follow the Maryland State
curriculum. Excuse me, the Maryland State standards. We have a
comprehensive curriculum that integrates critical thinking
throughout, offering multiple perspectives, so that students
can see history and facts through different perspectives, that
is my understanding sir.
Mr. Walberg. Mr. Banks.
Mr. Banks. First of all, critical thinking starts with
learning how to read. We have leaned into a very significant
way with our NYC Reads, and making sure that all kids are on
grade level. Beyond that, we have a wide range of things, a
socratic method to project based learning, all of that.
Finally, I would also like to say, sir, that you know, I
would be careful to casting aspersions on an entire system. We
have some teachers who have had some of these challenges. We
have had Members of Congress who have made antisemitic
statements, and I certainly would not cast aspersions on this
entire institution.
Similarly, I will stand in defense of New York City
educators, as well. We have some, and when we see it rear its
head, we deal with it.
Mr. Walberg. Well, I would stand with you on that, but I
also think that----
Chairman Bean. The gentleman's time has expired. Now we go
to the great Commonwealth of Virginia, Representative Scott,
you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman,
earlier in the hearing a gentleman from New York raised
questions about this side of the aisle in terms of a commitment
to fight antisemitism. I just remind him after what was pointed
out, the context of because we voted against his amendment, the
context of the amendment was pointed out.
After the UVA Alt-Right Rally, we asked for hearings on
antisemitism and could not get it. We have also been unable to
get any hearings on other forms of hate. I would ask Chancellor
Banks, do you deal with other forms of hate, other than
antisemitism, like homophobia, racism? Do transgender students
have a right to be safe in school?
Can you talk about other forms of hate?
Mr. Banks. Yes. Hate rears its head every single day. As a
black man who has had to deal with my people, and the history
of racism in America as well, this is something that is every
present. As the Chanceller of the New York City Public Schools,
the work that we see, the aspersions that are cast against the
LGBTQ community, the aspersions that are cast against Asian
Americans.
Homosexuals, it is--there is no end to this scourge of
hate. That is why I say antisemitism does not simply affect
Jews. Antisemitism affects all of us, particularly all people
of goodwill. I stand up not only against antisemitism. I stand
up against Islamophobia, and all other forms of hate.
You cannot put them in siloes, that is not the way that we
can be responsible about how we are going to approach this. We
have to deal with all forms of hate. The whole world lives in
New York City, and I have a responsibility to be the champion
and the Chancellor for everybody.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. Just as a side, is it your practice
to determine facts, and sanctions based on media reports or due
process?
Mr. Banks. Is that for me?
Mr. Scott. That is for you.
Mr. Banks. We are responsible. Just because something was
written on the front page of a tabloid does not make it true.
We have to investigate. We do that responsibly, and then we
move appropriately to deal with those situations on a case-by-
case basis.
Mr. Scott. You indicated that you cannot discipline
yourself out of the problem. What did you mean? Could you say a
little bit more about that?
Mr. Banks. Yes. What I mean is that ultimately if we really
care about solving for antisemitism, and I believe this deeply.
It is not about having ``got you'' moments, it is about
teaching. You have to raise the consciousness of young people.
The challenge we have as a system is that we do have some
adults who bring their own bias into the classroom, and we have
got to figure out how do we impact all of it at the same time?
The ultimate answer for antisemitism is to teach. To expose
young people to the Jewish community, so that they understand
our common humanity. I would certainly ask that my colleagues
from across the Nation, and I would call on Congress, quite
frankly, to put the call out to action to bring us together, to
talk about how we solve for this.
This convening for too many people across America in
education feels like the ultimate got you moment. It does not
sound like people are actually trying to solve for something
that I believe we should be doing everything we can to solve
for.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. Mr. Sykes, we have not heard anything
about the context of any of these events, the seriousness of
the problem, whether there is antisemitism or a comment on a
position on the war in Gaza. Can you say another word about why
it is so hard to determine whether or not expressions are
protected under the First Amendment, or a violation of the
criminal code, or a violation of Title 6, or campus policy?
Mr. Sykes. Yes, Congressman. These are all situations that
are evaluated based on the totality of the circumstances. There
are words that we might agree here that we all agree are
offensive, but we also can understand that certain words depend
on how they are used, when they are used, to whom they are
used, and how often they are used.
All of those are relevant to determining whether speech is
protected or creating a hostile educational environment. If I
might, I meant just to add onto the question about how do we
promote critical thinking, and exposure to a variety of ideas.
One of the things that we are doing at the ACLU is fighting
back against bans on inclusive education.
This was started by an executive order by the former
President and has now been copied and pasted in multiple
states, 18 million Americans now live under an education gag
order, where certain ideas are being prohibited from
classrooms. This is the epitome of trying to crack down on
critical thinking, and so we think that this legitimate threat
to free speech and free inquiry needs to be addressed urgently
as well.
Chairman Bean. Thank you. Thank you very much,
Representative Scott. Let us go to North Carolina where the
Chair of Education and Workforce Committee is Dr. Virginia Foxx
is recognized for 5 minutes.
Dr. Foxx.
Mrs. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank our
witnesses for being here today. I am going to ask Ms. Silvestre
to pull her mic a little closer to her mouth, so I can--I was
having trouble hearing you before. President Silvestre, you
said in your opening statement, ``Our policy is to initiate
investigation each time the school system receives a complaint,
or we witness particular antisemitic hate filled or racist
language or actions.''
On average, how long does each antisemitism investigation
take?
Ms. Silvestre. I do not have an exact number of weeks that
it takes, but I think I believe that we do a very thorough job,
so we take as long as is needed to investigate.
Mrs. Foxx. Okay. Are the victims always notified of the
results?
Ms. Silvestre. The victims are notified that an action has
been taken, but not specifics of what consequence was doled
out.
Mrs. Foxx. Will you pledge to notify people when you have
done the investigation?
Ms. Silvestre. We are working on improving our
communication so that the victims know--have more information
about what the outcome has been.
Mrs. Foxx. Okay. Working on it. Okay. Superintendent Ford
Morthel, you said in your submitted testimony that you were
``excited'' about California's new ethnic studies law. However,
we have heard from Jewish families who are concerned that
Berkeley's curriculum presents a slanted perspective of the
Israeli-Palestine conflict.
For example, the curriculum teaches that the war's
consequences for Palestine are ``no water, no food, no
electricity.'' Whereas the consequences for Israel are,
``ceremoneys put on hold, travel advisories in place, and
cities shut down.'' Do you think that's a fair representation
of the Israeli-Palestine conflict?
Ms. Ford Morthel. I do not think that is a fair
representation.
Mrs. Foxx. Have you consulted with Jewish groups in
considering how you will teach ethnic studies?
Ms. Ford Morthel. Councilwoman, I want to--Congresswoman, I
want to distinguish the lesson that I believe you are speaking
about in our ethnic studies curriculum. The lesson that you are
speaking about was a lesson set that was created in response to
a lot of curiosity, a lot of questions, and quite frankly, a
lot of confusion from many of our students wanting to know what
was going on.
We had a group of history teachers and social studies
teachers, and ethnic studies teachers, create a lesson in
response to that. That is distinguished from Berkeley's ethnic
studies curriculum.
Mrs. Foxx. Thank you. Mr. Banks, we have talked about the
map that was posted in a school, the Arab cultural arts program
at the school where the map has been funded by the Qatar
Foundation, a nonprofit owned by the country's ruling family.
The free press has found that QFI donated over 1 million
dollars to the New York Department of Education from 2019 to
2022 for materials, such as this map.
The map, you know the map I am talking about where Israel
does not exist.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Mrs. Foxx. Okay. Does your office vet the materials
purchased by these funds for antisemitism? If not, will you
commit to establish vigorous vetting to ensure that foreign
entities unfriendly to Israel are not stocking your classrooms
with antisemitic content?
Mr. Banks. Yes. We do vet the materials. That map as not a
result of the Qatar Foundation. That individual teacher bought
that map on her own with her own resources when she was in
Jerusalem. That is what she told us. It was not part of the
resources that came from the Qatar Foundation.
We do vet all the other materials and resources that come
into our schools, and that foundation has had no impact. They
write the check. They have had no impact on the curriculum that
has been developed, and how it has been implemented.
Mrs. Foxx. Individual teachers are allowed to bring in
materials that may be very antisemitic? Are you going to vet
those materials?
Mr. Banks. Absolutely. As we hear about those cases in New
York City, we have 77,000 teachers, and so you know, this is
not Mayberry. It is New York City, and it is a very large
system, and it is difficult for me as the Chancellor to say any
individual map that is up on a wall in particular classroom, I
am already aware of it.
We make sure that the principals of those schools, they are
supposed to provide that level of supervision.
Mrs. Foxx. I have one more quick question for you, Mr.
Banks. Do other countries donate significant sums to New York
City Public Schools?
Mr. Banks. I do not have--I would have to get back to you
on that. I do not have any evidence in front of me now that we
have any other foreign governments which are supporting other
programs in our schools, but I do not want to misrepresent
here. We can certainly get you the answer to that by the end of
the day.
Mrs. Foxx. Well, we would be happy if you would followup
with an answer on that.
Mr. Banks. Absolutely.
Mrs. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Bean. Thank you. Mr. Banks, we would all like to
see that answer.
Mr. Banks. Yes.
Chairman Bean. We are nearing the end of our Committee.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being great audience
members, and we just have to have closing statements, and I
will yield to Ranking Member Bonamici for her closing thoughts.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Thank you
to the witnesses for being here today, and for your work. I do
want to note, Mr. Chairman, that the witnesses today are from
what might be considered blue states. I do want to introduce
into the record articles that discuss instances of antisemitism
in Florida, Texas and Alabama, so that is in the record as
well.
Chairman Bean. Without objection.
[The Information of Ms. Bonamici follows:]
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Ms. Bonamici. Mr. Chairman, as I said, I was hoping this
could be a constructive conversation during which we would work
together on finding the most effective way to address and
prevent antisemitism in schools. Sadly, tasks like this are
made more difficult because we are in an era of deep division.
A time when too often dialog about tough issues is
confrontational if it happens at all.
A time when it pains me to say this, but it is relevant,
the top Republican running for President of the United States
has engaged not only in antisemitic tropes, but also in
divisive, degrading and disparaging language, including mocking
a reporter with a disability, calling American troops coward if
they were captured, ignoring the rule of law, threatening to
have people shot by police for shoplifting or a minor crime,
bragging about groping stars, and making so many countless and
demeaning comments about women that it is impossible to count
them.
I could go on, but my point is sadly there has been a tone,
a tone set at the top that seems to tolerate disrespect for
others, a tone that hurts not just us as a legislative body,
but as a Nation. I will say it again, it is my hope that this
Committee will set aside differences and work on in good faith
on how we can best address and prevent antisemitism in our
schools, in our country, as well as other hate speech.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to continuing the
conversation and I yield back.
Chairman Bean. Ranking Member Bonamici, thank you so much.
I would say it has been an excellent meeting. I would say when
I met each of you just for that brief moment before we start, I
regret Mr. Sykes, you were running in, and we are all just
racing in Congress.
I said our mission was to have an open and honest
conversation. I think we delivered that. If we are going to
solve the problems that we have identified today, it starts
with recognizing that it is happening, and that we need to do
more. I think we are reminded of the most precious asset that
is under each of your purview, and that is the next generation.
These young kids, some have described them as with minds
full of mush, that you help form into shapes and critical
thinking. We know that any seeds of hatred or antisemitism that
have planted there without weeding it, and without shaping it
can grow. We can look at the video screens of what it can
become if not left unchecked.
Mr. Sykes, I am very aware of your presence here today with
the ACLU is a reminder that we are a country built on free
speech. Free speech does not include death to Jews, or some of
the other vile slogans that we have heard. I am aware of that.
It is so hard to be a kid in today's society. There are
pressures. I am a kid of the 70's and 80's, and it is hard to
imagine growing up now with social media and the other
pressures of being a kid today. We should not have to worry.
They should not have to worry about getting beat up, or
whatever just for their religion. We are better than this. Mr.
Banks, when we met in the hallway you said we have got work to
do. Indeed we do, and hopefully it is not only a wakeup call
for your school districts, but to everybody that is watching
across America.
It is 2024. 2024. There is no place for this at all in
America. America is the last great hope where we can all
hopefully get along, and we are not proving it very well. I
think the lesson too is no matter how small, and Ms. Ford
Morthel, you said something too. No matter how small the
incident, it needs to be investigated, and people need to be
held to standards.
There needs to be consequences for crossing that line. We
are holding all of you because you hold our most precious
asset, our kids. With that, to the kids and the parents and the
teachers that I met with earlier, that many of us did.
We stand with you. We will not cease shining the light and
holding everybody accountable because as a nation we are just
frankly, we are better than this, and we all have a role to
play. Our work begins today going forward.
To the witnesses, thank you for coming forward, for your
frank discussion, and for your commitment going forward that we
all can live in a safe society without the hatred and the fear
of violence against us. With that, and without objection, there
being no further business, the Subcommittee stands, and this
hearing is not adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:19 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
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