Ann Arbor school district OKs measure calling for a Gaza cease-fire
Lily Altavena
After hours of contentious debate among community members and board members, Ann Arbor’s school board passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and Israel, voting 4-1, with two board members abstaining, just after midnight Thursday.
The marathon school board meeting saw more than 100 people wanting to make a public comment. Members of the public were given one minute each to speak. And the tension among the seven member board was palpable as Wednesday night’s meeting kicked off, and members spent more than 20 minutes debating when in the meeting they should consider the resolution.
While city governments across the country have made calls for a cease-fire, the Free Press could find no other example of a school district in Michigan making a similar resolution. Ann Arbor Public Schools is likely one of the first in the state. The resolution included in Wednesday’s agenda “expresses support for a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza and Israel,” calls for educational dialogue about the conflict among students and staff and supports the “release of all hostages.”
The public raised an array of political, moral, philosophical and purposeful questions about why so many of them were gathered in a high school auditorium on a frigid January night, even after school had been canceled that day. Many argued that the school board should stay out of foreign affairs, while others invoked worries about anti-Muslim hate in America and the destruction in the Gaza Strip.
Edward Trager, one of the many commenters who showed up Wednesday night, said he supported the resolution, and supported the provision encouraging honest dialogue among Ann Arbor students and staff. “Our schools are a forum where we educate our children,” he said.
David Lewis asked the board to focus instead on Ann Arborspecific issues, questioning the board’s decision to weigh in on the Israel-Hamas war, but not the invasion of Ukraine. “As a voter in Ann Arbor, I would like my board to focus on Ann Arbor Public Schools,” he said.
Several who identified themselves as students wrote to the board, and their comments were read aloud. Those comments said they’d noticed a rise in Islamophobia among their schoolmates and one wrote in that they felt hesitant to share that they are Palestinian.
Tensions in the Ann Arbor community have risen for several months as the conflict has raged on. More than 400 people signed a statement calling for the district to expand its definition of diversity and inclusion to include Palestinians. Meanwhile, a petition shared by the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor — signed by over 1,900 online — urged the board to focus on school district matters, calling the cease-fire resolution “divisive.”
In October, board President Rima Mohammad and member Jeff Gaynor published a joint statement about the conflict, vowing to stand together — Mohammad is Palestinian and Gaynor is Jewish.
Mohammad said her decision as a board member to support the resolution was based on what she has heard from the community.
“A call for cease-fire is to promote peace, to promote humanity and to promote moving forward,” she said.
Ann Arbor’s City Council passed a cease-fire resolution on Jan. 11, The Michigan Daily reported.
While they are largely charged with directing school district operations, school boards have long waded into heated and sometimes political conflicts. In 2020, several Michigan school boards including the Detroit Public Schools Community District and the Lansing School District adopted antiracism resolutions, committing to eliminating systemic racism.
As the pandemic placed more pressure on school districts, boards in some communities have become fraught political battlegrounds. School board elections have increasingly represented national, more-politicized races, research published in the journal State Politics and Policy Quarterly found.
Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@freepress.com.