Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. This week, Berkeley Unified Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel made her way to the nation’s capital to answer questions about how her district has handled allegations of anti-Semitism at its schools.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Morthel was summoned by the Republican led Subcommittee on Education, the same subcommittee whose hearing led to the resignations of university presidents invited to speak on the same topic.
Enikia Ford Morthel: Chairman mean 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 chair the…
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Berkeley Unified has been dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism since the October 7th attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel, siege on Gaza that followed. Arab and Palestinian students say they haven’t felt safe either. Today, I speak with KQED reporter Sara Hossaini about Berkeley Unified’s moment in the spotlight.
Sara Hossaini: Since October 7th, the attack by Hamas on Israel and the ensuing siege on Gaza. There’s just been a wave of activism throughout the country. Here in Berkeley, the same thing has happened at the school district. We’ve seen walkouts. There’s been, you know, an effort to really mobilize and in many different ways here.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Between these protests and these rallies since October 7th, I know that in response, a group of Jewish parents start to really raise concerns about anti-Semitism. Tell me a little bit about that.
Sara Hossaini: So I spoke to one mom who’s been quite vocal from that group. Her name is Ilana Pearlman:.
Ilana Pearlman: And that’s spelled Ilana. And the last name is Pearlman.
Sara Hossaini: She’s a midwife and a mom of three, two of whom are in the district.
Ilana Pearlman: Essentially, there were so many complaints that I started hearing about from other parents that we eventually formed a group.
Sara Hossaini: For her it began when her son texted her a picture of an art class, where the teacher showed a picture of what he was calling resistance art. So it was your Palestine flag around, fist punching through the Star of David. And for her, that was just like too much.
Ilana Pearlman: I looked at that and I said, it’s a fist punching through a Star of David. No thank you. The teacher had said, look what Israel just did. Israel is terrible. And by the way, you all need to go to this walkout tomorrow.
Sara Hossaini: So she pulled her son out and he sat in a library for a week without instruction. She said her son was subjected to online bullying, with kids sending pictures of that article and his name sending it around.
Ilana Pearlman: A child at Berkeley High took a screenshot of the L.A. times article with my son’s name in it, and over the text wrote, look at this dumb ass lying genocide lover.
Sara Hossaini: So they, I guess, by piecemeal, had been submitting these complaints, and then Ilana took it upon ourselves to really put them together. And she connected with these centers that the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League, who put together a more formal complaint.
Sara Hossaini: And the reason they did that is because they said they didn’t feel like the district responded enough or at all. So they put together a complaint that they filed with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Title six complaint, which is sort of the law that requires us to prevent discrimination.
Ilana Pearlman: So when I think about why I am so vocal, even though that this has been a very difficult journey, my job as a parent and as an adult in the community, a Jewish parent, a Jewish adult, is to make sure that all of our children are safe.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And what’s the sort of range of things alleged in this complaint?
Sara Hossaini: There’s two categories of things. There are the things that I think a reasonable person would agree are anti-Semitic. A kid asking a Jewish kid, what’s your number in reference to the Holocaust? Graffiti in the bathroom, allegedly like kill the Jews. Then there are things that I think venture into an area where we don’t have a lot of consensus.
Sara Hossaini: In the complaint, there was a description of a poster that a teacher had put up about a student led walkout for a cease fire in Gaza, and they framed that as pro Hamas poster, pro Hamas activities, and they alleged that it was put up on the wall next to the only Jewish teachers classroom. That’s contested.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What are they hoping the district would do in response to this complaint?
Sara Hossaini: What the complaint asks for is a clear statement from the administration denouncing antisemitism in all its forms.
Marci Miller: And also recognizing Zionism as a key component of Jewish identity for many students in the district.
Sara Hossaini: I spoke to Marci Miller, she’s the senior education counsel with the Brandeis Center, and she told me a little bit more about the complaint.
Marci Miller: There’s a hostile environment for Jewish students at the Berkeley Unified Schools, which is, you know, a violation of federal law. We’d really like to see some change to protect the Jewish students during what is a very difficult time.
Sara Hossaini: They also want posters, banners, graffiti taken down. And they want a task force that involves Jewish parents and student leaders and faculty to address the situation. They would also like the district to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Sara Hossaini: The examples they give of that are things like comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected of any other democratic nation, or saying things like the existence of the state of Israel is racist. So, you know, those are things that don’t have wide consensus even among Jewish people.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How did people respond to the complaint when it was filed?
Sara Hossaini: There was a board meeting in early March where a lot of people came out.
Sara Hossaini: There was a lot of students who spoke, and many of them were very impassioned.
Sara Hossaini: There were teachers that spoke. There were parents on sort of both sides of the the issue there. And I would say that there were a lot of voices in favor of teaching Palestine. One of the teachers that was there at the hearing was Andrea Pritchett.
Andrea Prichett: The impact that this is having on the students is, is, is, I think, devastating.
Sara Hossaini: Who spoke out about how disheartening it is, you know, after decades of being a teacher and activist, to have to explain to her students that learning about the region is not criminal.
Andrea Prichett: I’ve spent 20 years in this district teaching tolerance and peace and human rights, and to be maligned publicly in so many ways, to be maligned is a as as somebody who’s abusing children or somebody who is, is, is anti-Semitic. We need more help.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: There are also Arab and Palestinian students and teachers at Berkeley Unified as well. Right. I know you spoke with one of them, a teacher named Christina Harb:. Tell me about her.
Sara Hossaini: Christina is a Palestinian American teacher. She was born to immigrant parents. Catholic family.
Christina Harb: My grandmother on my mom’s side is from Jerusalem. And so she was eight years old, when the Nakba happened.
Sara Hossaini: She talked about wearing a free Palestine pin and how she has a little Free Palestine placard on her wall that every day someone turns around.
Christina Harb: Colleagues and I have worn, like, three Palestine buttons at work, and teachers at the high school have worn patches that say Free Palestine. And we were accused of being anti-Semitic.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What does she make of the complaint itself?
Sara Hossaini: What Christina said is that schools are not immune from what happens in society.
Christina Harb: I know for sure there were some anti-Semitic incidents even way before October 7th, right. But I know that kids are also saying things to each other that are Islamophobic and anti, you know, anti-Asian and anti-Black and is, homophobic and transphobic.
Sara Hossaini: She feels that this particular collection of complaints is getting a lot of attention, whereas others are not. And I think there is also dispute about a lot of what’s what the complaint comprises, because some of the complaint veers into contested language.
Christina Harb: The ADL complaint and Brandeis Center, created such a huge media hype and and almost like a frenzy that, you know, trying to spin a narrative that, you know, Jewish kids are unsafe because we’re teaching them about Palestinian narratives and perspectives. I mean, that that is that’s absurd to me.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How has the district responded to the complaints so far?
Sara Hossaini: You know, the district has had a policy which is sort of unique and reflects the Berkeley tradition of really leaning into ethnic studies, leaning into controversial issues. They even have a policy around teaching controversial issues so they don’t try to avoid them. And at the same time really protect people against antisemitism, Islamophobia, and any form of hate.
Enikia Ford Morthel: Inherent in any commitment to equity must be a willingness to listen, to reflect, and to work in community.
Sara Hossaini: Leader Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel, at the March board meeting, told everyone that that she saw the complaint as an opportunity to continue to uphold that commitment.
Enikia Ford Morthel: So what I’m saying to y’all is this is not an adversarial process. The district will fully engage with the Office of Civil Rights to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the allegations presented.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Coming up, how concerns over Berkeley Unified’s handling of antisemitism made their way to Congress. Stay with us.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: We’re seeing all these tensions brewing in Berkeley, then how does this all end up before Congress?
Sara Hossaini: So in April, three superintendents from blue leaning districts are summoned before the House Education and Workforce Committee. This is the same congressional committee that saw the heads of University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, who later resigned over their testimony. And these are k-through-12 schools now in the national spotlight.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And they’re there to talk about how they’ve been handling allegations of anti-Semitism at the schools, correct?
Sara Hossaini: That’s right.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So Berkeley is sort of in the spotlight as a result, Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel: is summoned to D.C. to answer some questions before Congress. People, along with these superintendents from New York and Maryland. How does it go, Sarah?
Sara Hossaini: It went pretty well for Ford Morthel and for the others. I mean, I think the same sort of fireworks that we saw with the college panel didn’t really happen as much with this panel.
Enikia Ford Morthel: We do not publicly share our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law. As a result, Assembly, we do nothing. This is not true.
Sara Hossaini: She tried to be careful in what she revealed in terms of how the district has been responding, because she said, it’s confidential under laws that, you know, deal with minors or deal with, you know, the union employees that they have, they’re the staff and teachers.
Enikia 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 follow up and we take it.
Speaker: I’m pretty sure your colleague, doctor, Mr. Banks, gave us an answer so you can.
Enikia Ford Morthel: And I respect and appreciate that. But I’m not going to be able to do that. I can let you know that again when any.
Sara Hossaini: But I think she did try to showcase some of what Berkeley brings in terms of its culture, of bringing different viewpoints to the table, multiple perspectives, and allowing students to experience those and learn from those.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, how did Ford Morthel respond to these allegations that the district isn’t doing enough to address anti-Semitism at its schools?
Sara Hossaini: She didn’t give a lot of details about what they did in the nine incidents that they investigated. And, according to her, took action. She like I said, she said that those are, confidential under the law.
Sara Hossaini: But she was adamant that they address them and that they continue to take this sort of thing seriously when it happens. But she straight up said, this is not a pervasive problem in the district.
Enikia Ford Morthel: Anti-Semitism is not pervasive in Berkeley Unified School District when investigations show that an anti-Semitic event has occurred. We take action to teach, correct and redirect our students.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, were there any notable exchanges between Ford, Martel and House members, especially the Republicans? Because I know these Republicans in particular, we’re really hoping to grill these superintendents from these more liberal parts of the country, right?
Sara Hossaini: Yes. So there were a couple of exchanges with Aaron being of Florida and Kevin Kiley, our own, here from California, who were discussing from the River to the sea.
Speaker: Does, is the phrase from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. Is that anti-Semitic?
Sara Hossaini: I think she really tried to show flexibility there. And it can be anti-Semitic. It can also mean different things to different people. It can be a call for freedom.
Speaker: It’s a yes. Or you can just go, yes or no?
Enikia 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.
Speaker: I’m going to go, yes, I’ll put you down. Yes, I got a boogie because five minutes goes by.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, I mean, it sounds like she left this hearing pretty unscathed. Is that fair to say?
Sara Hossaini: Yes, I think so. I think perhaps lawmakers were hoping to hear about, you know, firings and that sort of thing. And and I think that the three panelists really described why they don’t think that’s necessarily always the best policy here. These are teachers trying to do their best.
Sara Hossaini: These are students trying to learn and kind of this we’re all in it together attitude that I think didn’t lend itself well to what the New York superintendent called gotcha moments. So I think people that I later talked to, parents from the district thought that she made them proud.
Sara Hossaini: She did. She did. Okay, I’m sure there are other parents who feel frustrated by. The lack of detail. And, you know, that’s something that will likely be part of the Office of Civil Rights Investigation and the outcome of that.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Sarah, this is this is a lot. This is a lot, to wade in. I mean, we’re talking about schools. At the end of the day, parents who obviously care about the kind of education their kids are getting. I mean, what now? Where do we go from here?
Sara Hossaini: Well, at this moment, we now have another complaint, as a matter of fact, filed by care of San Francisco and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee on behalf of Berkeley parents and students and faculty who say that they’re concerned about severe and pervasive anti-palestinian racism and, say, Arab anti-Muslim racism in Berkeley schools.
Sara Hossaini: They’re saying enough is enough. We can’t watch as our kids are erased and the hate and the censorship targeting them. So, you know, now we have another complaint to wade through and we’ll see what happens.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, Sarah, for as much as it feels like a big deal that Berkeley Unified superintendent is testifying before Congress, it doesn’t seem like that has really changed much of like the for the conditions of students and teachers on the ground at Berkeley Unified. Like, does it seem like it just sort of came and went and nothing has really changed, I guess.
Sara Hossaini: I think that there wasn’t the sort of spectacle that many. Thought there could be or maybe were even hoping for. I don’t think this tension is going away anytime soon, especially as long as the war is going. And for now, we’re just back where we started, as you said. And and we’ll have to see what happens with the Office of Civil Rights and with this conflict in general.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Sarah, thank you so much for coming on. I know you’ve had a pretty hectic week, so I really appreciate you joining us.
Sara Hossaini: It’s always a pleasure.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: That was KQED reporter Sara Hossaini. This 35 minute conversation with Sara was cut down and edited by producer Maria Esquinca. Alan Montecillo is our senior editor. He scored this episode and edited all the tape. Music courtesy of Audio Network and NPR.
