A petition submitted to the Newton School Committee on November 8, 2018 called for several tasks to be carried out, including the removal of Newton Schools Superintendent David Fleishman and the termination of multiple areas in the Newton Curriculum. On November 27, the Committee gathered to determine whether to support or reject the petition. A massive crowd of teachers, students, and parents gathered to speak against the request, announcing their support for a group of targeted teachers. The Committee voted unanimously against the petition, which was signed by Education Without Indoctrination (EWI) and backed by the Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), and heavily disappointed the organizations that have targeted teachers for months.

Over the past six months, history teachers at North have been attacked by multiple organizations, the most publicly outspoken being APT. They used the Federalist to call out North history teachers such as David Bedar and Isongesit Ibokette, taking out of context information from an email exchange from 2017 and using it to target these teachers. APT claims that North is home to disrespectful students, oppressive teachers, and corrupt leadership, going as far as to call North anti-Semitic and having extreme anti-conservative bias against students.

Everyone needs to be conscious of the way they respond to and understand differing opinions; students in the classroom should be civil with their beliefs, but most importantly open to an opposing view. APT is conscious of their opinions and beliefs; however, they are not at all respectful towards the other side, and respond to differing views by targeting individuals and calling out teachers.   In this time of political bias and division, it is important to remember to defend what you believe in, but also allow people to have different opinions.

On Thursday, October 11, North teachers rallied together and performed a stand out in protest of APT and in support of fellow staff members. Several factors lead up to this protest, however the event that is the most important to look at is the exchange of emails between members of the history department in February of 2017, including Bedar, Ibokette, history teacher Kathryn Codd, and then department head Jonathan Bassett.

APT executive director Ilya Feoktistov published an article in the Federalist titled, “Emails Reveal High School Teachers Plotting to Hide Their Political Bias From Parents.” The article claimed to have uncovered the true motives of teachers at North. “The Left is abusing American high school education in its struggle to gain and retain political power,” Feoktistov wrote as the opening.

The rest of the article then goes through the email exchange between the teachers, using quotes out of context and citing what Feoktistov claims to be extremist liberal propaganda. For example, he writes, “Ibokette was having none of it. He typed this reply: ‘I am concerned that the call for ‘objectivity’ may just inadvertently become the most effective destructive weapon against social justice,’ and sent it to the members of Newton North’s history department.” Feoktistov portrays Ibokette as a disrespectful liberal, but in the full email Ibokette preceded this by explaining that in the current “corrosive and toxic” political environment, teachers are finding it more and more difficult to be able to tackle difficult topics. He added that they are doing the best they can to meticulously move around sensitive issues with as little bias as possible.

In response to the new set of guidelines on how to best teach objectively sent by Bassett,  Bedar wrote said that teachers “need to ‘Teach students to distinguish between personal attacks and civil political disagreement,’” but he added that “some people are couching the former in the language of the latter, and that’s bad.”

The difference between a political opinion and a personal attack is that an attack is an unbacked and targeted threat to another person, — for example, Bedar talked about when one of his students who refused to sit next to a Muslim girl simply because she was not from the U.S. — while an opinion is a grounded and civil belief that one holds, not to harass and ostracize other students, but to express why they believe in something. According to the email exchange, if the student’s “opinion” is a personal attack rather than a civil comment the teachers feel that it is their job to step in and mediate.

In the email, Bedar added his concerns on being able to teach controversial subjects to his students, and the difficulty that comes with it. “I’m worried that as a school we’re so focused on making all kids feel safe and being PC that we’re not showing enough concern for students whose very rights to attend this school and receive an education are being seriously threatened.”

Other teachers like Ibokette and Codd also voiced their opinions supporting Bedar. “I suggested that sometimes the best way forward is to seriously listen to understand and/or to push the other person to really think through their own arguments,” Codd said in the email exchange.

The history teachers try to protect students from direct attacks and also encourage differing opinions, which is a completely justifiable action. Students are entitled and encouraged to develop their own opinions surrounding various topics, but they also need to be able to distinguish between an opinion regarding a topic and an attack on a person. Education is among one of the most crucial aspects to the development of youth, and with education also comes the necessity to teach kids about varying perspectives. The history teachers within the exchange are pushing their students to voice any opinions they might have; however, the teachers also want to stop personal attacks on other students, which is what Feoktistov fails to mention in his article.

The story was picked up by Fox News—who failed to read deeper than the single Federalist article—and eventually subjected North to even more criticism with another article by Feoktistov on the Federalist.

Although it is widely accepted that teachers need to be unbiased and not push their own opinions on their students, Feoktistov and APT blow these emails out of proportion. These teachers are doing whatever they can to teach facts, clearly define opinions, and create a hospitable learning environment. The thought that any organization would call any hard-working teacher a bigot or anti-Semitic is unfathomable, yet here we are.

Believing that a school is doing something wrong is valid enough; constructive criticism is necessary in improving the way the school works. However, this situation has quickly escalated to the targeting of teachers and even the harassment of students.  Everyone is entitled to their own views and beliefs, and the staff at North is trying to protect these beliefs from harmful comments that are only made to hurt. The claims made by APT and the Federalist continue to escalate, and the amount of articles claiming that North is a bigoted, anti-semitic school continue to inflate in numbers and decrease in factual content. If there’s anything to get out of this situation, it’s to be more conscious of how we respond to criticism and different opinions. These events that caused so many to be targeted and harassed were caused by the fact that there was no respect; the real problem with APT was that there was no consideration towards the other side. As you sit in your classroom, you may be caught up in an argument with someone who has a different opinion. It doesn’t matter if their opinion is different from yours; the most important thing to remember is to be respectful, because otherwise the key aspect of civility becomes secondary to intense hate and prejudice.

A petition submitted to the Newton School Committee on November 8, 2018 called for several tasks to be carried out, including the removal of Newton Schools Superintendent David Fleishman and the termination of multiple areas in the Newton Curriculum. On November 27, the Committee gathered to determine whether to support or reject the petition. A massive crowd of teachers, students, and parents gathered to speak against the request, announcing their support for a group of targeted teachers. The Committee voted unanimously against the petition, which was signed by Education Without Indoctrination (EWI) and backed by the Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), and heavily disappointed the organizations that have targeted teachers for months.

Over the past six months, history teachers at North have been attacked by multiple organizations, the most publicly outspoken being APT. They used the Federalist to call out North history teachers such as David Bedar and Isongesit Ibokette, taking out of context information from an email exchange from 2017 and using it to target these teachers. APT claims that North is home to disrespectful students, oppressive teachers, and corrupt leadership without considering the motives of students at the school, going as far as to call North anti-Semitic and having extreme anti-conservative bias against students.

Everyone needs to be conscious of the way they respond to and understand differing opinions; students in the classroom should be civil with their beliefs, but most importantly open to an opposing view. APT is conscious of their opinions and beliefs; however, they are not at all respectful towards the other side, and respond to differing views by targeting individuals and calling out teachers.   In this time of political bias and division, it is important to remember to defend what you believe in, but also allow people to have different opinions.

On Thursday, October 11, North teachers rallied together and performed a stand out in protest of APT and in support of fellow staff members. Throughout the past several months, history teachers were harassed and threatened; wild claims targeted educators like Bedar by using emails taken out of context to make these teachers look like scheming, evil individuals.

Several factors lead up to this protest, however the event that is the most important to look at is the exchange of emails between members of the history department in February of 2017, including Bedar, Ibokette, history teacher Kathryn Codd, and then department head Jonathan Bassett.

APT executive director Ilya Feoktistov published an article in the Federalist titled, “Emails Reveal High School Teachers Plotting to Hide Their Political Bias From Parents.” The article claimed to have uncovered the true motives of teachers at North. “The Left is abusing American high school education in its struggle to gain and retain political power,” Feoktistov wrote as the opening.

The rest of the article then goes through the email exchange between the teachers, using quotes out of context and citing what Feoktistov claims to be extremist liberal propaganda. For example, he writes, “Ibokette was having none of it. He typed this reply: ‘I am concerned that the call for ‘objectivity’ may just inadvertently become the most effective destructive weapon against social justice,’ and sent it to the members of Newton North’s history department.” Feoktistov portrays Ibokette as a disrespectful liberal, but in the full email Ibokette preceded this by explaining that in the current “corrosive and toxic” political environment, teachers are finding it more and more difficult to be able to tackle difficult topics. He added that they are doing the best they can to meticulously move around sensitive issues with as little bias as possible.

In response to the new set of guidelines on how to best teach objectively sent by Bassett,  Bedar wrote said that teachers “need to ‘Teach students to distinguish between personal attacks and civil political disagreement,’” but he added that “some people are couching the former in the language of the latter, and that’s bad.”

The difference between a political opinion and a personal attack is that an attack is an unbacked and targeted threat to another person, — for example, Bedar talked about when one of his students who refused to sit next to a Muslim girl simply because she was not from the U.S. — while an opinion is a grounded and civil belief that one holds, not to harass and ostracize other students, but to express why they believe in something. According to the email exchange, if the student’s “opinion” is a personal attack rather than a civil comment the teachers feel that it is their job to step in and mediate.

In the email, Bedar added his concerns on being able to teach controversial subjects to his students, and the difficulty that comes with it. “I’m worried that as a school we’re so focused on making all kids feel safe and being PC that we’re not showing enough concern for students whose very rights to attend this school and receive an education are being seriously threatened.”

Other teachers like Ibokette and Codd also voiced their opinions supporting Bedar. “I suggested that sometimes the best way forward is to seriously listen to understand and/or to push the other person to really think through their own arguments,” Codd said in the email exchange.

The history teachers try to protect students from direct attacks and also encourage differing opinions, which is a completely justifiable action. Students are entitled and encouraged to develop their own opinions surrounding various topics, but they also need to be able to distinguish between an opinion regarding a topic and an attack on a person. Education is among one of the most crucial aspects to the development of youth, and with education also comes the necessity to teach kids about varying perspectives. The history teachers within the exchange are pushing their students to voice any opinions they might have; however, the teachers also want to stop personal attacks on other students, which is what Feoktistov fails to mention in his article.

The story was picked up by Fox News—who failed to read deeper than the single Federalist article—and eventually subjected North to even more criticism with another article by Feoktistov on the Federalist.

Although it is widely accepted that teachers need to be unbiased and not push their own opinions on their students, Feoktistov and APT blow these emails out of proportion. These teachers are doing whatever they can to teach facts, clearly define opinions, and create a hospitable learning environment. The thought that any organization would call any hard-working teacher a bigot or anti-Semitic is unfathomable, yet here we are.

Believing that a school is doing something wrong is valid enough; constructive criticism is necessary in improving the way the school works. However, this situation has quickly escalated to the targeting of teachers and even the harassment of students.  Everyone is entitled to their own views and beliefs, and the staff at North is trying to protect these beliefs from harmful comments that are only made to hurt. The claims made by APT and the Federalist continue to escalate, and the amount of articles claiming that North is a bigoted, anti-semitic school continue to inflate in numbers and decrease in factual content.

If there’s anything to get out of this situation, it’s to be more conscious of how we respond to criticism and different opinions. These events that caused so many to be targeted and harassed were caused by the fact that there was no respect; the real problem with APT was that there was no consideration towards the other side. As you sit in your classroom, you may be caught up in an argument with someone who has a different opinion. It doesn’t matter if their opinion is different from yours; the most important thing to remember is to be respectful, because otherwise the key aspect of civility becomes secondary to intense hate and prejudice.