District Commitment to a Safe School Culture (Responding to the Anti-Semitism Incident at CVMS)
Thank you to the many members of our Jewish community and their allies who spoke during the meeting or showed their support from the audience. I was especially moved by a student from Torrey Pines who shared her own personal experience with antisemitism.
The meeting lasted over six hours, and our discussion about the incident at Carmel Valley Middle School was last on the agenda. Thank you again to all who stayed to the bitter end!
The main accomplishment I was hoping for was to have our Superintendent create a small committee of parents, board members, and the school administration to address this issue in a meaningful way and with all due speed. My message was “it is time for action, not just words”. I know that such a committee can help us move forward productively; we just need the will to do it.
Trustees Young and Bronstein wanted to wait until next month’s meeting to consider forming a committee to even recommend action steps. In my opinion, we need an action orientation. Delay and deferral ultimately leads to inaction. Trustee Bronstein also wanted to expand the scope of the committee to become a more general equity and diversity committee to look at how the district meets the needs of every marginalized group. I strongly disagree with that direction. This particular committee needs to be focused on what went wrong at CVMS and what we can do now to prevent this from happening again. We need to be willing to make decisions and take action.
By the end of the meeting, I believe we at least obtained a commitment from Interim Superintendent Tina Douglas to begin the process of pulling together a parent committee. I volunteered to serve on that committee as a board rep. Also, Board President Mo Muir could not get a commitment from Trustees Young and Bronstein to attend a special meeting so there is none scheduled.
One last note: during the crisis in the spring when our Asian American community was the victim of racist remarks by Cheryl James-Ward, our Jewish community supported them and circulated many messages with the phrase:
Discrimination Against One of Us, Is Discrimination Against All of Us.
It was gratifying to see our Asian American community at the meeting returning the support and standing in solidarity.