San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
PHOTO OF HITLER IN CLASSROOM SPARKING BIG DEBATE
San Dieguito district teacher’s posting of it has drawn protests
Almost a year ago, hundreds of Jewish San Dieguito students pleaded for their school board to do something about antisemitism they said they experienced at school, ranging from offensive comments and Internet memes to vandalism and having to take standardized tests on Rosh Hashanah.
Then, weeks later, somebody found two large swastikas painted in the boys’ bathroom at Torrey Pines High School.
Now, community members are once again calling on the district to fight antisemitism in the weeks after a student protested a teacher’s photo of Adolf Hitler in her classroom.
But little change has yet been made as San Dieguito Union High School District board and community members disagree on how to move forward, whether to punish those involved or take a more restorative approach, and how best to monitor curricula and teaching methods.
A seventh-grade teacher at Carmel Valley Middle School had posted a Hitler photo on a classroom wall display next to photos of revered leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, according to images of the wall and interviews with parents. The teacher posted words above the photos such as “Themes” and “Evidence”; above Hitler’s photo, she put the word “Patterns.”
A student in the class complained to the teacher about the photo late last month, and the student’s parent contacted the princi
pal and the Anti-defamation League. School staff eventually took down the photo.
Civil rights groups, Jewish organizations, parents and community members said that regardless of the teacher’s intent, it was confusing and harmful in associating Hitler with a group of inspirational, positive world leaders without providing context or explanation.
“To be clear, images of Adolf Hitler in the classroom without proper context can be deeply offensive and hurtful to members of the Jewish community. Particularly for younger students who are impressionable,” the ADL’S San Diego chapter said in a statement last week. “Regardless of the teacher’s intent, the impact was felt in the classroom and beyond.”
Interim Superintendent Tina Douglas said in a statement that the district was “deeply sorry” for the display and promised to hold anti-bias training for faculty and staff, convene a “listening session” with Jewish leaders and examine the classroom material.
She didn’t say whether any disciplinary action had been taken with the teacher.
“We are responsible for creating a safe school culture, which is done with the teacher’s presence, words, and practices, and we know that we did not meet that standard with the recent situation at (Carmel Valley Middle School),” Douglas said in the statement.
The photo struck a nerve in the Jewish community, which has seen a rise in antisemitism in the past two years, including in San Dieguito schools.
“Our community is more anxious now than I’ve ever seen it,” said Heidi Gantwerk, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County. “This was one of what seemed to be multiple incidents and statements and actions that are signs antisemitism is increasing all around us.”
The ADL recorded 38 incidents of antisemitism in San Diego County last year, including harassment and vandalism. The group recorded 367 statewide, up 27 percent from 2020. And nationwide, there were 2,717 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault reported, the most ADL has recorded since it began tracking them in 1979.
Last fall, 250 Jewish San Dieguito students wrote a letter pleading with the school board to combat antisemitism in the district.
In response to the students’ letter, the school board passed a resolution condemning antisemitism in November, as well as another resolution “affirming the protection of students against discrimination, harassment, intimidation and bullying.”
That resolution ordered the superintendent to propose a new position of an anti-discrimination officer who would enforce it. The district has not hired an anti-discrimination officer.
San Dieguito spokesperson Miquel Jacobs said in an email that the district held professional development and training for staff in diversity, equity and inclusion over the course of a year, and now the principals of all the district’s 10 schools are working on implementing that training in schools. Jacobs added that all 10 schools have been deemed “No Place for Hate” as part of an anti-bias school program hosted by the ADL.
“SDUHSD has taken the safety and health of our students and staff as our top priority,” Jacobs said.
Several Jewish leaders said they think the Hitler photo is an example of how antisemitism often gets overlooked or left out, even from discussions or lessons about racism and bias.
“What happens, I think, sometimes is antisemitism is not addressed specifically in situations where anti-bias training is in place,” Gantwerk said. “That’s where you get to a point where a picture of Hitler on the wall seems like a provocative learning tool, when in fact it’s really symbolic of tremendous evil against a people.”
Some parents and community members said they don’t think the district is doing enough in the weeks following the Hitler photo incident. Some have said they want to see the teacher be fired.
“Quite frankly, I’m disappointed not to have seen more action or transparency from the school or the school district on what they have done or are doing to investigate the underlying issue,” said Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, a national Jewish civil rights advocacy group. “We’ve heard words, but words are not really meaningful without action.”
Jonathan Gale, a parent of a seventh-grader in the teacher’s classroom, said he had his child moved to a different teacher’s class after the incident. He said he interpreted the photo as subtle antisemitism that can be easy to gloss over.
“The school needs to do more. They need to really own it and take accountability and address it in a way that’s a more blatant type of hate,” Gale said.
A group held a protest before San Dieguito’s most recent board meeting last week. The protesters said they were upset that the board had placed a discussion-only item — not an action item — about the incident at the end of its agenda. The meeting ended up lasting six hours, until 11 p.m.
Other parents in the district were more sympathetic to the teacher and called for grace, saying they don’t believe the teacher meant to portray Hitler as a good person.
Adrienne Suster, a Jewish parent to a ninth-grader at Canyon Crest Academy, said that while the teacher’s inclusion of the Hitler photo was “misguided and wrong,” she believes it was intended as a lesson about examining history and critical thinking. She said she’s concerned that recent news coverage of this incident has only seemed to present one side of the story, one that condemns the teacher.
“There is a history of antisemitism in this district and in our community, and our Jewish community is just sick and tired of it,” Suster said. “However, I don’t think this specific case was a case of antisemitism.”
Rachelle Fischer, who is Jewish and parent to two San Dieguito students, said she knows the teacher is good, because she taught her daughter, who is now in high school, two years ago. Fischer said she suspects the teacher “genuinely didn’t realize” kids would be upset about the photo.
“I’m definitely not condoning what she did; I was 100 percent offended by what she did. But I think she should be educated and not punished,” Fischer said.
The Jewish Federation’s Gantwerk, who was invited to talk with Douglas and other district administrators, said she’s encouraged by district leaders’ conversations.
She said she wants to see two things from the district: more oversight over curricula — especially over how topics such as World War II, the Holocaust, Judaism and Israel are taught in school — and more training for staff on how to address antisemitism and treat it “just as seriously as any other form of racism or hate.”
“There’s an opportunity here for real education of faculty and students, and I hope the district takes advantage of that opportunity,” Gantwerk said.
At last week’s board meeting, trustees discussed the possibility of creating a committee to address the incident and prevent something like it from happening again. But they disagreed over who should be on it and when it should convene.
Trustee Julie Bronstein said she wants Jewish community leaders on the committee. Trustee Katrina Young said she wants a teacher on the panel while Trustee Maureen “Mo” Muir disagreed and said it should rather be a “safe place for parents.”
Bronstein, who is Jewish, said she also wants Jewish leaders to be consulted more before forming a committee.
“As a proud and active member of the Jewish community, and a member of Congregation Beth Israel my entire life, I am fully supportive of the formation of a committee in our school district — but I believe that the formation of a committee without the involvement of Jewish community leadership and lacking any clear directive or strategy would result in failure,” Bronstein wrote in an email.
Trustee Michael Allman said in an email that he wants to form a committee now and shares community frustrations over how long it is taking for the board to do something concrete.
“There is no reason to wait, and community meetings can take place in parallel to committee work,” he said.
Allman said he thought the Hitler photo incident spoke to a bigger issue of curriculum transparency. He suggested, for example, putting syllabi and course materials on easily accessible websites so that community members, not just parents, can see them.
“The fact that the picture was up since school started is kind of troubling,” he said. “Did nobody else see it? Did anyone ever question what is the lesson here?”
Calls for curriculum transparency and community input have been a common call among conservatives who have criticized how some schools are teaching ethnic studies and about LGBTQ issues.
Young disagreed with Allman, saying course materials should remain only within the circle of teacher, student and parent and that not just anybody should be offering input on curricula.
“I think we get into dangerous territory when anyone can look at that syllabus,” she said.
After about an hour, board members couldn’t agree on how to form a committee, so they settled on having Allman and Bronstein meet with interim Superintendent Douglas as a start.
kristen.taketa@sduniontribune.com