Parents of several students at Oak Park-River Forest High School have alleged three teachers did things that have deeply affected some students, who consider them antisemitic, The Chicago Tribune reports. The distress of these students and their parents is palpable, as they feel the school district has allowed the antisemitism to continue.
Unity Temple in Oak Park (Phil Beard/Flickr Creative Commons)Under the faculty guidance of the three teachers named in a complaint letter, the school’s MENA (Middle Eastern and Northern Africa) club sold a T-shirt on the school’s website. The shirt had a map of the Middle East, including Israel and other areas.
The shirt also featured the word “Palestine,” implying that it was of Palestine and Palestine only. In reality, Palestine is an area in the eastern Mediterranean, comprising parts of modern Israel, the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip (along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea), and the West Bank (west of the Jordan River).
Because the word “Israel” was excluded despite being part of the same map, some Jewish people considered the shirt antisemitic — it failed even to recognize the existence of the Jewish state of Israel.
The Tribune quoted the complaint as saying, “Not only did [the school district’s] leadership assist in the T-shirt sale, but they legitimized and enabled the promotion of antisemitism amongst students and staff.” This alleged involvement of the school’s leadership is a serious concern.
Despite the severe nature of the complaint, sent to the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Attorney General’s office, neither the ISBE, the attorney general, nor the school district was willing to comment.
The paper quoted district Superintendent Greg Johnson as saying in April that dealing with the pain and divisions created by the Gaza War has been the most challenging topic he has ever faced.
“Our job is not to take sides one way or the other,” he said. “Our job is to do everything we can to support our students, but that is so hard to do. It’s impossible to do perfectly, I would contend, and it is extraordinarily hard to do when you’re dealing with such a divisive issue” as the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
