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"content": "\u003cp>A congressional committee on Monday launched a new investigation into reports of antisemitism into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley-unified-school-district\">Berkeley’s school district\u003c/a>, raising concerns that the schools failed to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee outlined the allegations in a letter sent to three school districts nationwide: Berkeley Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and the School District of Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jewish and Israeli students have allegedly been regularly bullied and harassed,” since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the letter from Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R–Michigan) and Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chair Kevin Kiley (R–California).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said that Jewish students in Berkeley schools were “subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some teachers and administrators across BUSD allegedly facilitate and encourage this hostility, while others fail to act in response to it,” the letter from Walberg and Kiley continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district has been at the center of federal antisemitism investigations in K-12 schools since February 2024, when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League filed a formal complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish students had been subject to “severe and persistent” discrimination in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School in Berkeley on May 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985599/berkeley-antisemitism-hearing\">BUSD’s Superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel, testified\u003c/a> before Congress in proceedings led by Republican lawmakers — similar to those held months earlier with leaders of prominent colleges and universities. She said that antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley parents and advocates who believe the district has continuously failed to investigate alleged antisemitism praised the new investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s necessary and … good because the complaints against Berkeley Unified have not yet been resolved,” said Marci Miller, the Director of Legal Investigations with the Brandeis Center, which is run by a former education department official from Trump’s first administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And, because when the Superintendent was called before Congress last time, there seemed to be a lack of accountability or even acknowledging that there was an issue in the first place,” she continued.[aside postID=news_11985599 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2152066925-1020x680.jpg']The committee letter cited specific incidents of antisemitism at BUSD schools in recent years, including an allegation that during a pro-Palestinian walkout at Berkeley High School in 2023, students yelled “\u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">Kill the Jews\u003c/a>,” and that a teacher at the school displayed a photo of a fist destroying the Star of David, describing it as “\u003ca href=\"https://defendinged.org/incidents/berkeley-high-school-teacher-displays-image-to-class-of-a-fist-destroying-the-star-of-david-over-israel/\">standing up for social justice\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Ilana Pearlman, who pulled one of her children out of BUSD over antisemitism concerns, said she’s filed multiple complaints with the district that have gone unaddressed for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s that sense of, ‘I told my parents something, I told my teacher something that happened, and nobody did anything,’” she told KQED. “That’s kind of how I feel in the district in general. I, as an adult, said, ‘These things have happened,’ and nobody’s done anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said there have been more than 100 such complaints lodged with BUSD since January 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What matters is the takeaway and the impact that that still has on my children of this noticing … that it might be unsafe to be Jewish,” Pearlman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said in an email on Tuesday that it would respond “appropriately” to the Committee’s letter, which demands a plethora of documents related to curriculum, school activities, partnerships and contracts that refer or relate to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism or antisemitism, as well as a chart of all complaints of antisemitism the district has received since Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973563\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11973563 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/1st-Day-of-Middle-School-10-1-scaled-1-e1764117061286.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands with her hands raised next to a white woman in a classroom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, right, speaks to a classroom on the first day of middle school on Aug. 16, 2003. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A BUSD spokesperson added that Ford Morthel addressed the specific claims of the letter at the May 2024 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel told lawmakers at the time. “We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said that when students and staff district addressed alleged incidents of antisemitism through education, restorative justice and discipline.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']“We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law,” she told lawmakers at the time. “As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley substitute teacher Christina Harb, who is Palestinian American, said that some of the allegations had been disproven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s only one parent that makes the claim that she heard [‘Kill the Jews’],” during the walkout mentioned in the letter, Harb told KQED. She said another incident lawmakers cited, that a teacher allegedly put a drawing by students that said ‘Stop Bombing Babies’ outside the one Jewish teacher at the school’s classroom, was taken out of context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not placed outside of her classroom because it’s her classroom. It was placed on an anti-hate wall that’s been in place since 2017,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harb believes that BUSD teachers and administrators have done their due diligence to address antisemitism concerns. She said she’s worried that the current investigation will instead be used to silence Muslim and Palestinian kids in Berkeley schools — a number of whom have reported incidents of discrimination to the district, and even filed their own ongoing federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really clear that BUSD is just being used really as a chess piece in a much, much broader agenda — a pro-Israel agenda,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The committee letter cited specific incidents of antisemitism at BUSD schools in recent years, including an allegation that during a pro-Palestinian walkout at Berkeley High School in 2023, students yelled “\u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">Kill the Jews\u003c/a>,” and that a teacher at the school displayed a photo of a fist destroying the Star of David, describing it as “\u003ca href=\"https://defendinged.org/incidents/berkeley-high-school-teacher-displays-image-to-class-of-a-fist-destroying-the-star-of-david-over-israel/\">standing up for social justice\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Ilana Pearlman, who pulled one of her children out of BUSD over antisemitism concerns, said she’s filed multiple complaints with the district that have gone unaddressed for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s that sense of, ‘I told my parents something, I told my teacher something that happened, and nobody did anything,’” she told KQED. “That’s kind of how I feel in the district in general. I, as an adult, said, ‘These things have happened,’ and nobody’s done anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said there have been more than 100 such complaints lodged with BUSD since January 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What matters is the takeaway and the impact that that still has on my children of this noticing … that it might be unsafe to be Jewish,” Pearlman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said in an email on Tuesday that it would respond “appropriately” to the Committee’s letter, which demands a plethora of documents related to curriculum, school activities, partnerships and contracts that refer or relate to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism or antisemitism, as well as a chart of all complaints of antisemitism the district has received since Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973563\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11973563 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/1st-Day-of-Middle-School-10-1-scaled-1-e1764117061286.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands with her hands raised next to a white woman in a classroom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, right, speaks to a classroom on the first day of middle school on Aug. 16, 2003. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A BUSD spokesperson added that Ford Morthel addressed the specific claims of the letter at the May 2024 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel told lawmakers at the time. “We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said that when students and staff district addressed alleged incidents of antisemitism through education, restorative justice and discipline.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law,” she told lawmakers at the time. “As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley substitute teacher Christina Harb, who is Palestinian American, said that some of the allegations had been disproven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s only one parent that makes the claim that she heard [‘Kill the Jews’],” during the walkout mentioned in the letter, Harb told KQED. She said another incident lawmakers cited, that a teacher allegedly put a drawing by students that said ‘Stop Bombing Babies’ outside the one Jewish teacher at the school’s classroom, was taken out of context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not placed outside of her classroom because it’s her classroom. It was placed on an anti-hate wall that’s been in place since 2017,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harb believes that BUSD teachers and administrators have done their due diligence to address antisemitism concerns. She said she’s worried that the current investigation will instead be used to silence Muslim and Palestinian kids in Berkeley schools — a number of whom have reported incidents of discrimination to the district, and even filed their own ongoing federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really clear that BUSD is just being used really as a chess piece in a much, much broader agenda — a pro-Israel agenda,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After a years-long fight, 16 and 17-year-olds in Berkeley and Oakland will be able to vote in school board \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school\">elections\u003c/a> this fall, the first two districts in the state to give young people a say in who governs their public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced technology for printing and counting youth ballots is ready for the November election. Berkeley passed Measure Y1, giving young people the right to vote in school board elections in 2016. Oakland followed suit with Measure QQ four years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ixchel Arista, an Oakland High School graduate, joined the campaign for the Oakland measure as a high school freshman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are the main constituents and recipients of the decisions made at the school board level, and it only makes sense in my mind that 16-17 year-olds are able to decide who they feel is going to best represent their interests,” Arista says, adding that the challenge now is making sure young people have the information they need to cast their vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there is a lot to learn. Chances are, if you are 16 or 17, you have never voted in an election before. If that’s the case, don’t worry; this is new to everyone. Even the county registrar has had a hard time figuring it out and spent months designing and building a new voting system for young people. Below, you’ll find information about how to register, how to learn about candidates, and where to vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Did we miss something? If you have other questions about how to vote, please send us your questions by \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2Acbz9vp9kYjW_zXntoPd3AGmn4q3A57lVKLQ-oInhMdzXg/viewform\">filling out this form\u003c/a>. If you’d like to email me directly, \u003ca href=\"mailto:afinney@kqed.org\">click here.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This November, 16- and 17-year-olds in Oakland will have four school board seats to consider on the ballot, while those in Berkeley will have two. \u003ccite>(Aaron Mendelson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How do I register to vote?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To cast a ballot, people who are 16 or 17 need to register with the Secretary of State using a process called “pre-registration.” You can pre-register \u003ca href=\"https://registertovote.ca.gov/\">online\u003c/a> or in person at the Alameda County Registrar’s office in the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse near Lake Merritt in Oakland at 1225 Fallon St., room G1. Paper forms are also available at some public libraries and DMV locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you register online, make sure you select the “pre-register” option on the Secretary of State’s website. If you are using a paper form, check the box at the top of the page that says you are 16 or 17.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To pre-register to vote in Berkeley or Oakland school board elections, you’ll need to meet all of the state’s regular voting requirements, other than being 18, and be a Berkeley or Oakland resident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The online application will ask you for the following information, so it’s good to have it ready when you go online to fill out the form:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your home address\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The last four digits of your social security number or a state driver’s license or ID card number. If you don’t have a state ID, the registrar will need a copy of your signature to have on file. The registrar will compare that signature with the signature on your ballot to make sure it came from you. If you register on paper, the registrar will ask you to sign a legal document called an affidavit. If you register online, you will have to print a form, sign it and mail it to the registrar’s office.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>After you register, you can check to make sure it was received using the Secretary of State’s \u003ca href=\"https://voterstatus.sos.ca.gov/\">registration voter status page\u003c/a>. The Alameda County Registrar is encouraging young people to register before Oct. 21.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How can I learn about what I’ll be voting on?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Eligible voters who are 16 and 17 are only allowed to vote in their school board elections. In Oakland, there are four school board seats on the ballot in November, two in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, only eligible youth voters living in school board Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 will vote this year. In 2026, Districts 2, 4 and 6, will be up for election. You can look up which Oakland school board district you live in using this \u003ca href=\"https://gisapps1.mapoakland.com/ousd/\">Oakland Unified School District District map\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_12000525 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, school board members serve the entire city, so all eligible youth voters will be able to vote regardless of where they live in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School boards are a group of people elected to make decisions about how local public schools operate. They vote on what schools teach, how schools are kept safe and how to spend money set aside by the state for schools. There is a lot to say about what school boards do. For more check out \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/17/what-do-oakland-school-board-members-do-exactly/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiOy1BhDCARIsADGvQnCmKEjAinyYWO727WdG7ixHUEAarQxP6O4ATBxpFpKrnRgV6P8YPVMaAiy1EALw_wcB\">this 2020 article\u003c/a> from \u003cem>The Oaklandside\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School board directors in Oakland and Berkeley are up for election every four years. Leading up to elections, people interested in becoming school board members file official paperwork, start raising money, make campaign websites, print advertisements like lawn signs (if you keep an eye out, you’ll probably see some around your city) and host campaign events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what candidates support, you can search online for their campaign websites, go to local campaign events or candidate forums, read local reporting about how candidates have voted in the past and research candidates in voter information guides. You can look up who is giving money to each candidate on \u003ca href=\"https://public.netfile.com/pub2/Default.aspx?aid=COAK\">Oakland’s campaign finance website\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://public.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=BRK\">Berkeley’s campaign finance website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED has a voter guide that will give you basic information about Oakland’s school board candidates for Districts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-1\">1\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-3\">3\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-5\">5\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-7\">7\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#berkeley-school-director\">Berkeley’s school board candidates\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How do I vote?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you pre-register with the Secretary of State, you’ll get a ballot sent to the address on your registration. You have to fill out the ballot, sign the envelope and send it in on or before Election Day on Nov. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t receive a mail-in ballot, lose it or would just like to get help filling it out, there will be one location for in-person youth voting on Nov. 5: The Alameda County Registrar’s office at the Rene Davidson Courthouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After a years-long fight, 16 and 17-year-olds in Berkeley and Oakland will be able to vote in school board \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school\">elections\u003c/a> this fall, the first two districts in the state to give young people a say in who governs their public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced technology for printing and counting youth ballots is ready for the November election. Berkeley passed Measure Y1, giving young people the right to vote in school board elections in 2016. Oakland followed suit with Measure QQ four years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ixchel Arista, an Oakland High School graduate, joined the campaign for the Oakland measure as a high school freshman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are the main constituents and recipients of the decisions made at the school board level, and it only makes sense in my mind that 16-17 year-olds are able to decide who they feel is going to best represent their interests,” Arista says, adding that the challenge now is making sure young people have the information they need to cast their vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there is a lot to learn. Chances are, if you are 16 or 17, you have never voted in an election before. If that’s the case, don’t worry; this is new to everyone. Even the county registrar has had a hard time figuring it out and spent months designing and building a new voting system for young people. Below, you’ll find information about how to register, how to learn about candidates, and where to vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Did we miss something? If you have other questions about how to vote, please send us your questions by \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2Acbz9vp9kYjW_zXntoPd3AGmn4q3A57lVKLQ-oInhMdzXg/viewform\">filling out this form\u003c/a>. If you’d like to email me directly, \u003ca href=\"mailto:afinney@kqed.org\">click here.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Photo3_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This November, 16- and 17-year-olds in Oakland will have four school board seats to consider on the ballot, while those in Berkeley will have two. \u003ccite>(Aaron Mendelson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How do I register to vote?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To cast a ballot, people who are 16 or 17 need to register with the Secretary of State using a process called “pre-registration.” You can pre-register \u003ca href=\"https://registertovote.ca.gov/\">online\u003c/a> or in person at the Alameda County Registrar’s office in the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse near Lake Merritt in Oakland at 1225 Fallon St., room G1. Paper forms are also available at some public libraries and DMV locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you register online, make sure you select the “pre-register” option on the Secretary of State’s website. If you are using a paper form, check the box at the top of the page that says you are 16 or 17.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To pre-register to vote in Berkeley or Oakland school board elections, you’ll need to meet all of the state’s regular voting requirements, other than being 18, and be a Berkeley or Oakland resident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The online application will ask you for the following information, so it’s good to have it ready when you go online to fill out the form:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your home address\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The last four digits of your social security number or a state driver’s license or ID card number. If you don’t have a state ID, the registrar will need a copy of your signature to have on file. The registrar will compare that signature with the signature on your ballot to make sure it came from you. If you register on paper, the registrar will ask you to sign a legal document called an affidavit. If you register online, you will have to print a form, sign it and mail it to the registrar’s office.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>After you register, you can check to make sure it was received using the Secretary of State’s \u003ca href=\"https://voterstatus.sos.ca.gov/\">registration voter status page\u003c/a>. The Alameda County Registrar is encouraging young people to register before Oct. 21.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How can I learn about what I’ll be voting on?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Eligible voters who are 16 and 17 are only allowed to vote in their school board elections. In Oakland, there are four school board seats on the ballot in November, two in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, only eligible youth voters living in school board Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 will vote this year. In 2026, Districts 2, 4 and 6, will be up for election. You can look up which Oakland school board district you live in using this \u003ca href=\"https://gisapps1.mapoakland.com/ousd/\">Oakland Unified School District District map\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, school board members serve the entire city, so all eligible youth voters will be able to vote regardless of where they live in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School boards are a group of people elected to make decisions about how local public schools operate. They vote on what schools teach, how schools are kept safe and how to spend money set aside by the state for schools. There is a lot to say about what school boards do. For more check out \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/17/what-do-oakland-school-board-members-do-exactly/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiOy1BhDCARIsADGvQnCmKEjAinyYWO727WdG7ixHUEAarQxP6O4ATBxpFpKrnRgV6P8YPVMaAiy1EALw_wcB\">this 2020 article\u003c/a> from \u003cem>The Oaklandside\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School board directors in Oakland and Berkeley are up for election every four years. Leading up to elections, people interested in becoming school board members file official paperwork, start raising money, make campaign websites, print advertisements like lawn signs (if you keep an eye out, you’ll probably see some around your city) and host campaign events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what candidates support, you can search online for their campaign websites, go to local campaign events or candidate forums, read local reporting about how candidates have voted in the past and research candidates in voter information guides. You can look up who is giving money to each candidate on \u003ca href=\"https://public.netfile.com/pub2/Default.aspx?aid=COAK\">Oakland’s campaign finance website\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://public.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=BRK\">Berkeley’s campaign finance website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED has a voter guide that will give you basic information about Oakland’s school board candidates for Districts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-1\">1\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-3\">3\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-5\">5\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#oakland-school-director-district-7\">7\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/alameda/school#berkeley-school-director\">Berkeley’s school board candidates\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How do I vote?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you pre-register with the Secretary of State, you’ll get a ballot sent to the address on your registration. You have to fill out the ballot, sign the envelope and send it in on or before Election Day on Nov. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t receive a mail-in ballot, lose it or would just like to get help filling it out, there will be one location for in-person youth voting on Nov. 5: The Alameda County Registrar’s office at the Rene Davidson Courthouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "berkeley-antisemitism-hearing",
"title": "Berkeley Schools Chief Testifies Before Congress on Antisemitism",
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"headTitle": "Berkeley Schools Chief Testifies Before Congress on Antisemitism | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel testified before Congress on the district’s handling of antisemitism allegations in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hearing comes after a group of Jewish parents, along with the Brandeis Center and Anti-Defamation League, filed a federal complaint in February alleging “severe” antisemitism in the district. However, many pro-Palestinian parents, educators and students have pushed back, arguing that the complaint unfairly conflates critiques of Israel with antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC7424739493\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong> 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>So I spoke to one mom who’s been quite vocal from that group. Her name is Ilana Pearlman:.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>And that’s spelled Ilana. And the last name is Pearlman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>She’s a midwife and a mom of three, two of whom are in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>Essentially, there were so many complaints that I started hearing about from other parents that we eventually formed a group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And what’s the sort of range of things alleged in this complaint?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What are they hoping the district would do in response to this complaint?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>What the complaint asks for is a clear statement from the administration denouncing antisemitism in all its forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marci Miller: \u003c/strong>And also recognizing Zionism as a key component of Jewish identity for many students in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marci Miller: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>How did people respond to the complaint when it was filed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>There was a board meeting in early March where a lot of people came out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>There was a lot of students who spoke, and many of them were very impassioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrea Prichett: \u003c/strong>The impact that this is having on the students is, is, is, I think, devastating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrea Prichett: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>Christina is a Palestinian American teacher. She was born to immigrant parents. Catholic family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>My grandmother on my mom’s side is from Jerusalem. And so she was eight years old, when the Nakba happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What does she make of the complaint itself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>What Christina said is that schools are not immune from what happens in society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>How has the district responded to the complaints so far?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>Inherent in any commitment to equity must be a willingness to listen, to reflect, and to work in community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Coming up, how concerns over Berkeley Unified’s handling of antisemitism made their way to Congress. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We’re seeing all these tensions brewing in Berkeley, then how does this all end up before Congress?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And they’re there to talk about how they’ve been handling allegations of anti-Semitism at the schools, correct?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>I’m pretty sure your colleague, doctor, Mr. Banks, gave us an answer so you can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, how did Ford Morthel respond to these allegations that the district isn’t doing enough to address anti-Semitism at its schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>Does, is the phrase from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. Is that anti-Semitic?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>It’s a yes. Or you can just go, yes or no?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>I’m going to go, yes, I’ll put you down. Yes, I got a boogie because five minutes goes by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, I mean, it sounds like she left this hearing pretty unscathed. Is that fair to say?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Sarah, thank you so much for coming on. I know you’ve had a pretty hectic week, so I really appreciate you joining us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>It’s always a pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The Bay is made by me and Alan Monticello, Maria Esquinca, Ellie Prickett-Morgan with support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan. We are a production of listener supported KQED Public Media in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll talk to you next time.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel testified before Congress on the district’s handling of antisemitism allegations in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hearing comes after a group of Jewish parents, along with the Brandeis Center and Anti-Defamation League, filed a federal complaint in February alleging “severe” antisemitism in the district. However, many pro-Palestinian parents, educators and students have pushed back, arguing that the complaint unfairly conflates critiques of Israel with antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC7424739493\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong> 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>So I spoke to one mom who’s been quite vocal from that group. Her name is Ilana Pearlman:.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>And that’s spelled Ilana. And the last name is Pearlman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>She’s a midwife and a mom of three, two of whom are in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>Essentially, there were so many complaints that I started hearing about from other parents that we eventually formed a group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ilana Pearlman: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And what’s the sort of range of things alleged in this complaint?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What are they hoping the district would do in response to this complaint?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>What the complaint asks for is a clear statement from the administration denouncing antisemitism in all its forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marci Miller: \u003c/strong>And also recognizing Zionism as a key component of Jewish identity for many students in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marci Miller: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>How did people respond to the complaint when it was filed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>There was a board meeting in early March where a lot of people came out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>There was a lot of students who spoke, and many of them were very impassioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrea Prichett: \u003c/strong>The impact that this is having on the students is, is, is, I think, devastating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrea Prichett: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>Christina is a Palestinian American teacher. She was born to immigrant parents. Catholic family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>My grandmother on my mom’s side is from Jerusalem. And so she was eight years old, when the Nakba happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What does she make of the complaint itself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>What Christina said is that schools are not immune from what happens in society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christina Harb: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>How has the district responded to the complaints so far?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>Inherent in any commitment to equity must be a willingness to listen, to reflect, and to work in community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Coming up, how concerns over Berkeley Unified’s handling of antisemitism made their way to Congress. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We’re seeing all these tensions brewing in Berkeley, then how does this all end up before Congress?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And they’re there to talk about how they’ve been handling allegations of anti-Semitism at the schools, correct?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>I’m pretty sure your colleague, doctor, Mr. Banks, gave us an answer so you can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, how did Ford Morthel respond to these allegations that the district isn’t doing enough to address anti-Semitism at its schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>Does, is the phrase from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. Is that anti-Semitic?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>It’s a yes. Or you can just go, yes or no?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enikia Ford Morthel: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker: \u003c/strong>I’m going to go, yes, I’ll put you down. Yes, I got a boogie because five minutes goes by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, I mean, it sounds like she left this hearing pretty unscathed. Is that fair to say?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Sarah, thank you so much for coming on. I know you’ve had a pretty hectic week, so I really appreciate you joining us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sara Hossaini: \u003c/strong>It’s always a pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The Bay is made by me and Alan Monticello, Maria Esquinca, Ellie Prickett-Morgan with support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan. We are a production of listener supported KQED Public Media in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll talk to you next time.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The head of the Berkeley Unified School District is scheduled to testify before a Republican-led congressional subcommittee on Wednesday morning in response to recent allegations of antisemitism in some of the district’s schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement last month, the district confirmed that the House Education and Workforce Committee had summoned Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel to field questions from lawmakers about how she has responded to claims that some Jewish students have felt unwelcome in their classrooms since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although [Ford Morthel] did not seek this invitation, she has accepted,” Berkeley Unified spokesperson Trish McDermott said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985262\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 316px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985262\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel.png\" alt=\"A Black woman wearing a beige dress with her hand on her hip.\" width=\"316\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel.png 316w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel-160x187.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley Unified Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Berkeley Unified School District)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The hearing, on “Confronting pervasive antisemitism in K–12 schools,” will be held at 10:15 a.m. EST by the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education — chaired by Republican Florida Rep. Aaron Bean — and live-streamed \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@EdWorkforceCmte/streams\">on the committee’s YouTube page\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford Morthel’s appearance on Capitol Hill follows similar Republican-led congressional inquiries into antisemitism on college campuses, including a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/12/elise-stefanik-harvard-hearing/\">high-profile hearing in December\u003c/a> that contributed to the subsequent resignations of the presidents of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/us/university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns.html#:~:text=The%20president%20of%20the%20University,of%20Jews%20should%20be%20punished.\">the University of Pennsylvania\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/business/claudine-gay-harvard-president-resigns/index.html\">Harvard\u003c/a>. And the hearing comes amid a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2024/university-antiwar-campus-protests-arrests-data/\">tidal wave of pro-Palestinian protests\u003c/a> on college campuses across the nation that have led to more than 2,000 arrests and prompted several schools to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/05/07/1249550559/the-unrest-on-college-campuses-is-running-up-against-graduation-season\">cancel their main graduation ceremonies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Ford Morthel will be joined by New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks and Karla Silvestre, board of education president of Montgomery County, Maryland, \u003ca href=\"https://edworkforce.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=410511\">according to reporting \u003c/a>from the Committee on Education and the Workforce. All three administrators oversee districts that have seen heated activism over the war and reports of antisemitic and anti-Islamic incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s progressive school district came to the attention of lawmakers in March when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/IcqICVON1KCgYly7hQ-Uf_?domain=brandeiscenter.com\">filed a federal complaint\u003c/a> with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. In it, the groups alleged that Jewish students in Berkeley schools had been subject to “severe and persistent” harassment and discrimination and that school leaders “knowingly allowed” a “viciously hostile” anti-Jewish environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, a day before Ford Morthel’s scheduled testimony, the department’s Office for Civil Rights announced it had opened a formal investigation into the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley resident Ilana Pearlman said she started alerting other Jewish parents shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, when her son, a ninth-grader at Berkeley High, showed her an illustration his art teacher had presented to the class as part of a lesson on “resistance art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I could understand, you know, maybe resistance art if you have a ton of context behind it,” said Pearlstein, who is involved in Berkeley Jews in School, a faction of parents who believe antisemitism is on the rise in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she said, “I looked at that and I said, ‘It’s a fist punching through a star of David. No, thank you!’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Israel launched its ensuing assault on Gaza, she said her son, who is Black and Jewish, told her that signs \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-29/federal-complaint-alleges-berkeley-public-schools-allowed-discrimination-against-jewish-children\">began appearing on the walls\u003c/a> of the classroom, including one promoting a “walkout against genocide” and another listing the daily Palestinian death toll. Pearlman said the teacher also began speaking out against Israel in class and encouraging students to attend an upcoming student walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He can feel however he wants to feel, but that stops at a public school setting,” she said. “You don’t get to go on your whole anti-Israel rant. The law says ‘No.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pearlman said her son then told her that during the walkout on Oct. 18, some students shouted, “Kill the Jews!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pearlman helped mobilize dozens of parents to report alleged incidents of antisemitism, bullying and “pro-Hamas” activism and to demand the school district proactively address the issue. She said the district’s failure to respond effectively prompted the federal complaint, which was filed in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I want to expose about Berkeley is this reality that Berkeley acts like it’s just so perfect. And we’re just so above racism and all of the ‘isms,’ and we’re not,” said Pearlman, who will be in Washington to attend the hearing. “We suck at it too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11972999,news_11984094\" label=\"Related Stories\"]In April, the district was \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-15/berkeley-schools-antisemitism-congressional-hearing\">also hit with a lawsuit\u003c/a> from another Jewish parent alleging it had not adequately responded to his requests to share ninth-grade teaching materials about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the \u003ci>LA Times\u003c/i> also reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its statement last month, the district said it celebrates its diversity and stands firmly against all forms of hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We strive every day to ensure that our classrooms are respectful, humanizing, and joyful places for all our students, where they are welcomed, seen, valued, and heard,” Berkeley Unified’s McDermott said. “We will continue to center our students and take care of each other during this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-29/federal-complaint-alleges-berkeley-public-schools-allowed-discrimination-against-jewish-children\">\u003cem>LA Times\u003c/em> interviewed Pearlman\u003c/a> about the \u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">complaint\u003c/a> and in March published a story that named her son, she said he was viciously bullied online with hateful messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those messages and other reported incidents also led the Brandeis Center and ADL on Monday to file an \u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BUSD-Supplement-to-Title-VI-Complaint-final-redacted.pdf\">expanded complaint\u003c/a> against Berkeley Unified, “sounding the alarm that the already-hostile environment for Jewish students is taking a frightening turn for the worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Brandeis Center, run by a former education department official under President Trump, has filed similar complaints against several universities. It also sued the University of California and UC Berkeley officials in November over \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-01/lawsuit-accuses-uc-berkeley-of-fostering-anti-semitism-dean-calls-accusations-inaccurate\">allegations of antisemitism on campus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, what we have asked for is a statement to start with by the district denouncing antisemitism in all of its forms,” said Marci Lerner Miller, senior education counsel for the Brandeis Center. She said that means the district would interpret comments that deny Jewish people their “right to self-determination” as antisemitic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, many pro-Palestinian parents in the district, a significant number of whom are Jewish – including a group called Berkeley Unified School District Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation – argue that the complaints against the district are unfairly conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a school board meeting in March, Andrea Prichett, a teacher in the district, was among the majority in attendance who urged the district to uphold its progressive tradition around free speech, tolerance and human rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The desire to understand Palestine, the desire to understand the roots of the conflict, and the desire to speak freely are not criminal actions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that same meeting, Ford Morthel referred to the federal complaint as “an opportunity and not an adversarial process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford Morthel, who took the helm of Berkeley Unified nearly two years ago, brought years of experience as a top administrator at San Francisco Unified. When she accepted the superintendent job, she described herself as a leader focused on equity and has since garnered strong support from many parents in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She leads with concern for folks that have been the most marginalized,” said Erika Weissinger, whose two kids are in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students in the district, and at Berkeley High in particular, are known for their activism against injustice, protesting in recent years for causes like abortion rights and against racism and sexual harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>October Hertenstein, a sophomore at Berkeley High who successfully pushed for a gender-neutral bathroom on campus, said although students don’t always feel heard by the district, Ford Morthel has been willing to listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[When] you’re in a room with her, she’s very excited, she’s very animated. She’s very, kind of, ready to talk,” Hertenstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In previous interviews with KQED, Ford Morthel said the school district is committed to ensuring students and staff know their rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Unified declined KQED’s request to interview Ford Morthel for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Holly McDede contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The head of the Berkeley Unified School District is scheduled to testify before a Republican-led congressional subcommittee on Wednesday morning in response to recent allegations of antisemitism in some of the district’s schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement last month, the district confirmed that the House Education and Workforce Committee had summoned Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel to field questions from lawmakers about how she has responded to claims that some Jewish students have felt unwelcome in their classrooms since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although [Ford Morthel] did not seek this invitation, she has accepted,” Berkeley Unified spokesperson Trish McDermott said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985262\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 316px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985262\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel.png\" alt=\"A Black woman wearing a beige dress with her hand on her hip.\" width=\"316\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel.png 316w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/Enikia-Ford-Morthel-160x187.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley Unified Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Berkeley Unified School District)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The hearing, on “Confronting pervasive antisemitism in K–12 schools,” will be held at 10:15 a.m. EST by the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education — chaired by Republican Florida Rep. Aaron Bean — and live-streamed \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@EdWorkforceCmte/streams\">on the committee’s YouTube page\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford Morthel’s appearance on Capitol Hill follows similar Republican-led congressional inquiries into antisemitism on college campuses, including a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/12/elise-stefanik-harvard-hearing/\">high-profile hearing in December\u003c/a> that contributed to the subsequent resignations of the presidents of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/us/university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns.html#:~:text=The%20president%20of%20the%20University,of%20Jews%20should%20be%20punished.\">the University of Pennsylvania\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/business/claudine-gay-harvard-president-resigns/index.html\">Harvard\u003c/a>. And the hearing comes amid a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2024/university-antiwar-campus-protests-arrests-data/\">tidal wave of pro-Palestinian protests\u003c/a> on college campuses across the nation that have led to more than 2,000 arrests and prompted several schools to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/05/07/1249550559/the-unrest-on-college-campuses-is-running-up-against-graduation-season\">cancel their main graduation ceremonies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Ford Morthel will be joined by New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks and Karla Silvestre, board of education president of Montgomery County, Maryland, \u003ca href=\"https://edworkforce.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=410511\">according to reporting \u003c/a>from the Committee on Education and the Workforce. All three administrators oversee districts that have seen heated activism over the war and reports of antisemitic and anti-Islamic incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s progressive school district came to the attention of lawmakers in March when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/IcqICVON1KCgYly7hQ-Uf_?domain=brandeiscenter.com\">filed a federal complaint\u003c/a> with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. In it, the groups alleged that Jewish students in Berkeley schools had been subject to “severe and persistent” harassment and discrimination and that school leaders “knowingly allowed” a “viciously hostile” anti-Jewish environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, a day before Ford Morthel’s scheduled testimony, the department’s Office for Civil Rights announced it had opened a formal investigation into the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley resident Ilana Pearlman said she started alerting other Jewish parents shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, when her son, a ninth-grader at Berkeley High, showed her an illustration his art teacher had presented to the class as part of a lesson on “resistance art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I could understand, you know, maybe resistance art if you have a ton of context behind it,” said Pearlstein, who is involved in Berkeley Jews in School, a faction of parents who believe antisemitism is on the rise in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she said, “I looked at that and I said, ‘It’s a fist punching through a star of David. No, thank you!’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Israel launched its ensuing assault on Gaza, she said her son, who is Black and Jewish, told her that signs \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-29/federal-complaint-alleges-berkeley-public-schools-allowed-discrimination-against-jewish-children\">began appearing on the walls\u003c/a> of the classroom, including one promoting a “walkout against genocide” and another listing the daily Palestinian death toll. Pearlman said the teacher also began speaking out against Israel in class and encouraging students to attend an upcoming student walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He can feel however he wants to feel, but that stops at a public school setting,” she said. “You don’t get to go on your whole anti-Israel rant. The law says ‘No.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pearlman said her son then told her that during the walkout on Oct. 18, some students shouted, “Kill the Jews!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pearlman helped mobilize dozens of parents to report alleged incidents of antisemitism, bullying and “pro-Hamas” activism and to demand the school district proactively address the issue. She said the district’s failure to respond effectively prompted the federal complaint, which was filed in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I want to expose about Berkeley is this reality that Berkeley acts like it’s just so perfect. And we’re just so above racism and all of the ‘isms,’ and we’re not,” said Pearlman, who will be in Washington to attend the hearing. “We suck at it too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In April, the district was \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-15/berkeley-schools-antisemitism-congressional-hearing\">also hit with a lawsuit\u003c/a> from another Jewish parent alleging it had not adequately responded to his requests to share ninth-grade teaching materials about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the \u003ci>LA Times\u003c/i> also reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its statement last month, the district said it celebrates its diversity and stands firmly against all forms of hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We strive every day to ensure that our classrooms are respectful, humanizing, and joyful places for all our students, where they are welcomed, seen, valued, and heard,” Berkeley Unified’s McDermott said. “We will continue to center our students and take care of each other during this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-29/federal-complaint-alleges-berkeley-public-schools-allowed-discrimination-against-jewish-children\">\u003cem>LA Times\u003c/em> interviewed Pearlman\u003c/a> about the \u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">complaint\u003c/a> and in March published a story that named her son, she said he was viciously bullied online with hateful messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those messages and other reported incidents also led the Brandeis Center and ADL on Monday to file an \u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BUSD-Supplement-to-Title-VI-Complaint-final-redacted.pdf\">expanded complaint\u003c/a> against Berkeley Unified, “sounding the alarm that the already-hostile environment for Jewish students is taking a frightening turn for the worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Brandeis Center, run by a former education department official under President Trump, has filed similar complaints against several universities. It also sued the University of California and UC Berkeley officials in November over \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-01/lawsuit-accuses-uc-berkeley-of-fostering-anti-semitism-dean-calls-accusations-inaccurate\">allegations of antisemitism on campus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, what we have asked for is a statement to start with by the district denouncing antisemitism in all of its forms,” said Marci Lerner Miller, senior education counsel for the Brandeis Center. She said that means the district would interpret comments that deny Jewish people their “right to self-determination” as antisemitic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, many pro-Palestinian parents in the district, a significant number of whom are Jewish – including a group called Berkeley Unified School District Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation – argue that the complaints against the district are unfairly conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a school board meeting in March, Andrea Prichett, a teacher in the district, was among the majority in attendance who urged the district to uphold its progressive tradition around free speech, tolerance and human rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The desire to understand Palestine, the desire to understand the roots of the conflict, and the desire to speak freely are not criminal actions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that same meeting, Ford Morthel referred to the federal complaint as “an opportunity and not an adversarial process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford Morthel, who took the helm of Berkeley Unified nearly two years ago, brought years of experience as a top administrator at San Francisco Unified. When she accepted the superintendent job, she described herself as a leader focused on equity and has since garnered strong support from many parents in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She leads with concern for folks that have been the most marginalized,” said Erika Weissinger, whose two kids are in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students in the district, and at Berkeley High in particular, are known for their activism against injustice, protesting in recent years for causes like abortion rights and against racism and sexual harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>October Hertenstein, a sophomore at Berkeley High who successfully pushed for a gender-neutral bathroom on campus, said although students don’t always feel heard by the district, Ford Morthel has been willing to listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[When] you’re in a room with her, she’s very excited, she’s very animated. She’s very, kind of, ready to talk,” Hertenstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In previous interviews with KQED, Ford Morthel said the school district is committed to ensuring students and staff know their rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Unified declined KQED’s request to interview Ford Morthel for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Holly McDede contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California will soon lift its requirement that students wear masks inside schools and child care facilities, leaving it up to local communities and public health officials to determine their own rules on masking. Students can begin attending schools without masks (in districts that allow it) on March 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office made the announcement this morning, citing low COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates as a reason for the policy shift. While no longer requiring masks inside schools, the state is still recommending them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Masks are an effective tool to minimize spread of the virus and future variants, especially when transmission rates are high,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in the statement. “We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move follows an announcement on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that mask mandates are not needed where case rates and hospitalizations are low or moderate. In the Bay Area, only \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html\">Napa and Solano counties were designated by the CDC\u003c/a> as still having high enough rates to merit continued masking in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has come under pressure from Republicans and other critics to ease the mandates. Over the weekend in San Francisco, a group calling itself Parents for Mask Choice in California Schools protested, saying masking of younger children is disrupting learning and is a psychological stress.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gov. Gavin Newsom\"]‘We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a press conference Monday, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly shared that the state has been seeing encouraging trends over the last two weeks in the sharp decrease in case, hospitalization and test positivity rates. New COVID cases dropped by 66% from Feb. 14 to Feb. 28, he said.. In that same time period, hospitalizations dropped by 48%, and test positivity rates dropped by more than half, to 2.9%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think those local details, those local conditions are really going to guide,” said Ghaly. “We are saying at the state level that if the conditions warrant it and the conversations go to it, those districts, those jurisdictions should feel empowered to keep masking in place because that is the decision that they’re making to keep their community safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghaly also noted how the state’s approach has helped California keep schools open, with the percentage of closures far lower than the national average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he acknowledged that some parents may still be frustrated with the state’s school masking decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I will tell you that we know for each person out there who may have one view of the decision today that there is another family, another young person who has a different view,” Ghaly said. “So public health is not necessarily about balance, it’s about leading with data and science and communicating clearly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Ventura County, Simi Valley Unified School District Superintendent Jason Peplinski welcomed the news, saying his school board would have allowed kids to go maskless inside schools months ago if it hadn’t been for the state’s restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had a lot of angst around this topic for the last few months and it was increasingly less civil,” said Peplinski, adding that most of his school community is grateful for the policy shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now the other side of this topic is there are still parents that probably would prefer that all kids are masked,” said Peplinski. “There probably are still employees that would prefer that all students wear masks. So, you know, we’re going to have a conversation about this one way or the other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kerry Huffman has a son with autism at Richmond’s Mira Vista elementary school in West Contra Costa Unified. She said he would learn better without the mask but she is torn.[aside postID=\"news_11905165,mindshift_59058,news_11906215\" label=\"Related Posts\"]“It is a step in the right direction in general, but I do have some concerns and it goes back to fear as a parent because we are still not out of it. I literally lost someone just last week that I know in my industry to COVID,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland Unified, parent Pecolia Manigo said when the state leaves it up to districts and local public health officials to decide what is safe, it puts the responsibility on families and on students to have to defend what they believe is safe for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It also truly creates racial tensions, in the middle school, in the high schools,” said Manigo. “Because, you know, the students who are not feeling safe are not backed up and not reaffirmed by often staff who may have their own opinions shared or not. And so it’s an unfortunate situation. It’s unfortunate because it tells certain communities that even though you might have a right to feel safe, we’re not going to protect that right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week’s federal guidance shift on masks in schools came two weeks after several states controlled by Democrats, including Oregon, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, already relaxed their school masking rules. On Sunday, New York’s governor said the state would lift its mask mandate on March 2. Several states have banned masks in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National teachers organizations welcomed the CDC’s move away from universal masking. The American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten cautioned, however, against bullying those who want to remain masked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some parents, students and educators will still choose to wear masks, and there should be no stigma for those who do so. We have a duty to protect vulnerable populations and their right to attend school in person, and there should also be a limited remote option for those who require it,” she wrote in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In reaction to today’s rule change, the California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd said in a statement that reaction would be mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While some students are ready to immediately remove their masks, others remain very afraid. We urge local school districts to continue to work with educators and families and to act cautiously while prioritizing the safety of students, educators, and their families,” Boyd said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, Cassondra Curiel, who heads the teachers union, also welcomed a way to ease mask requirements, stating that United Educators of San Francisco would work with the district and the city to “meet the needs of San Francisco students, families, staff, and educators. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll out last week, of nearly 9,000 California registered voters, 65% approved of requiring masks in schools. In the Bay Area, 74% approved. However, opinions split radically along party lines, with 87% of Democrats approving and just 26% of Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And parents who continue to lack confidence that their children are safe from the virus while in school may balk at any lifting of mask restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Berkeley IGS poll, Latino and Black parents expressed less confidence than white and Asian parents that their child was safe from the virus while in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any divide over making masks optional could cause problems inside schools. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2022/02/california-mask-mandate-student-life/\">CalMatters reported\u003c/a> on tensions between groups of students at Nevada Joint Union High, south of Nevada City, last week over whether masks should be worn. CalMatters reported that so many of the district’s teachers called in sick in response to the district voting to lift its mask mandate, several schools were shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, Halima Watson, a first-year student at Oakland Technical High School, said that even if her district lifts the mask mandate, she’ll keep her mask on to keep others safe. “Because everyone reacts differently to COVID,” she said. “I have a friend who had it and she has had neurological problems and she’s had shaking with her body. I feel like it’s better to keep masking, but I feel like there are a lot of kids who don’t wear their masks properly so I don’t know if it will make much of a difference.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halima said there are already tensions inside her school about kids who don’t take the masking rule seriously. “There’s this kid who I sit next to in geometry who is very, like, whenever another kid has their mask off, he’s like, ‘Put your mask on.’ A lot of people would probably be very against it [lifting the mask mandate].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halima’s mom, Kim Watson, predicts if the district has a stricter set of rules than the CDC and the state, it is going to be difficult for teachers trying to insist kids wear their masks. “It could cause tension between peers and also between educators and students,” Watson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some districts across California are already allowing students not to wear masks inside, defying state rules. Other local districts like Berkeley Unified have begun adjusting mask policies in consultation with local health officials and labor partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning Feb. 28, BUSD students can go maskless outside. Superintendent Brent Stephens notified parents that the district will review today’s guidance from the state before announcing any planned indoor masking changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alameda County Office of Education also said it would be reviewing the state’s guidance before making any decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California will soon lift its requirement that students wear masks inside schools and child care facilities, leaving it up to local communities and public health officials to determine their own rules on masking. Students can begin attending schools without masks (in districts that allow it) on March 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office made the announcement this morning, citing low COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates as a reason for the policy shift. While no longer requiring masks inside schools, the state is still recommending them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Masks are an effective tool to minimize spread of the virus and future variants, especially when transmission rates are high,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in the statement. “We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move follows an announcement on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that mask mandates are not needed where case rates and hospitalizations are low or moderate. In the Bay Area, only \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html\">Napa and Solano counties were designated by the CDC\u003c/a> as still having high enough rates to merit continued masking in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has come under pressure from Republicans and other critics to ease the mandates. Over the weekend in San Francisco, a group calling itself Parents for Mask Choice in California Schools protested, saying masking of younger children is disrupting learning and is a psychological stress.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a press conference Monday, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly shared that the state has been seeing encouraging trends over the last two weeks in the sharp decrease in case, hospitalization and test positivity rates. New COVID cases dropped by 66% from Feb. 14 to Feb. 28, he said.. In that same time period, hospitalizations dropped by 48%, and test positivity rates dropped by more than half, to 2.9%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think those local details, those local conditions are really going to guide,” said Ghaly. “We are saying at the state level that if the conditions warrant it and the conversations go to it, those districts, those jurisdictions should feel empowered to keep masking in place because that is the decision that they’re making to keep their community safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghaly also noted how the state’s approach has helped California keep schools open, with the percentage of closures far lower than the national average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he acknowledged that some parents may still be frustrated with the state’s school masking decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I will tell you that we know for each person out there who may have one view of the decision today that there is another family, another young person who has a different view,” Ghaly said. “So public health is not necessarily about balance, it’s about leading with data and science and communicating clearly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Ventura County, Simi Valley Unified School District Superintendent Jason Peplinski welcomed the news, saying his school board would have allowed kids to go maskless inside schools months ago if it hadn’t been for the state’s restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had a lot of angst around this topic for the last few months and it was increasingly less civil,” said Peplinski, adding that most of his school community is grateful for the policy shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now the other side of this topic is there are still parents that probably would prefer that all kids are masked,” said Peplinski. “There probably are still employees that would prefer that all students wear masks. So, you know, we’re going to have a conversation about this one way or the other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kerry Huffman has a son with autism at Richmond’s Mira Vista elementary school in West Contra Costa Unified. She said he would learn better without the mask but she is torn.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It is a step in the right direction in general, but I do have some concerns and it goes back to fear as a parent because we are still not out of it. I literally lost someone just last week that I know in my industry to COVID,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland Unified, parent Pecolia Manigo said when the state leaves it up to districts and local public health officials to decide what is safe, it puts the responsibility on families and on students to have to defend what they believe is safe for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It also truly creates racial tensions, in the middle school, in the high schools,” said Manigo. “Because, you know, the students who are not feeling safe are not backed up and not reaffirmed by often staff who may have their own opinions shared or not. And so it’s an unfortunate situation. It’s unfortunate because it tells certain communities that even though you might have a right to feel safe, we’re not going to protect that right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week’s federal guidance shift on masks in schools came two weeks after several states controlled by Democrats, including Oregon, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, already relaxed their school masking rules. On Sunday, New York’s governor said the state would lift its mask mandate on March 2. Several states have banned masks in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National teachers organizations welcomed the CDC’s move away from universal masking. The American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten cautioned, however, against bullying those who want to remain masked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some parents, students and educators will still choose to wear masks, and there should be no stigma for those who do so. We have a duty to protect vulnerable populations and their right to attend school in person, and there should also be a limited remote option for those who require it,” she wrote in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In reaction to today’s rule change, the California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd said in a statement that reaction would be mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While some students are ready to immediately remove their masks, others remain very afraid. We urge local school districts to continue to work with educators and families and to act cautiously while prioritizing the safety of students, educators, and their families,” Boyd said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, Cassondra Curiel, who heads the teachers union, also welcomed a way to ease mask requirements, stating that United Educators of San Francisco would work with the district and the city to “meet the needs of San Francisco students, families, staff, and educators. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll out last week, of nearly 9,000 California registered voters, 65% approved of requiring masks in schools. In the Bay Area, 74% approved. However, opinions split radically along party lines, with 87% of Democrats approving and just 26% of Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And parents who continue to lack confidence that their children are safe from the virus while in school may balk at any lifting of mask restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Berkeley IGS poll, Latino and Black parents expressed less confidence than white and Asian parents that their child was safe from the virus while in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any divide over making masks optional could cause problems inside schools. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2022/02/california-mask-mandate-student-life/\">CalMatters reported\u003c/a> on tensions between groups of students at Nevada Joint Union High, south of Nevada City, last week over whether masks should be worn. CalMatters reported that so many of the district’s teachers called in sick in response to the district voting to lift its mask mandate, several schools were shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, Halima Watson, a first-year student at Oakland Technical High School, said that even if her district lifts the mask mandate, she’ll keep her mask on to keep others safe. “Because everyone reacts differently to COVID,” she said. “I have a friend who had it and she has had neurological problems and she’s had shaking with her body. I feel like it’s better to keep masking, but I feel like there are a lot of kids who don’t wear their masks properly so I don’t know if it will make much of a difference.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halima said there are already tensions inside her school about kids who don’t take the masking rule seriously. “There’s this kid who I sit next to in geometry who is very, like, whenever another kid has their mask off, he’s like, ‘Put your mask on.’ A lot of people would probably be very against it [lifting the mask mandate].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halima’s mom, Kim Watson, predicts if the district has a stricter set of rules than the CDC and the state, it is going to be difficult for teachers trying to insist kids wear their masks. “It could cause tension between peers and also between educators and students,” Watson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some districts across California are already allowing students not to wear masks inside, defying state rules. Other local districts like Berkeley Unified have begun adjusting mask policies in consultation with local health officials and labor partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning Feb. 28, BUSD students can go maskless outside. Superintendent Brent Stephens notified parents that the district will review today’s guidance from the state before announcing any planned indoor masking changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alameda County Office of Education also said it would be reviewing the state’s guidance before making any decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'The Day Has Finally Arrived': Berkeley's Youngest Students Return to Classrooms for First Time in a Very Long Year",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s been a big day for some Berkeley students and parents who have endured a challenging, seemingly endless year of closed classrooms and online learning. On Monday, nearly all Berkeley public elementary schools resumed in-person classes, opening their doors to children in pre-K through second grade — one of the first districts in the region to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting to this point has been no small feat, involving months of tense negotiations between the Berkeley Unified School District and the teachers union, as well as sometimes strained involvement from groups of passionate, increasingly frustrated parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day was a moment of excitement and a huge relief, if not some trepidation, for scores of students and parents, especially those who have staunchly advocated for schools to reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, more than 76% of Berkeley students in pre-K through second grade plan to return to in-person learning, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/2021/03/reopening-information-sessions-and-solidarity-reapertura-sesiones-informativas-y-solidaridad/\">district enrollment data\u003c/a>, while more than 18% of students are expected to continue with distance learning. About 5% of students’ families didn’t respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caroline Francis, who has a first grader at Berkeley’s Malcolm X Elementary School, said she trusts that the district has the process under control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been following the school board meetings and reading the documents that they send us, and I know that they’ve done a ton of work to prepare and that the city public health department has been really involved,” she said. “So I’m very confident that they’re ready for this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11867039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/BAM-scaled-e1617077662182.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11867039 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/BAM-scaled-e1617077662182.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A long line of students and parents outside of Berkeley Arts Magnet School on Monday morning, March 29, the first day of in-person classes in over a year. \u003ccite>(Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The safety of students and staff will be top of mind, BUSD Superintendent Brent Stephens told KQED. Everyone, he said, will be given a “health screener” each morning, and will be required to wear face coverings — except when eating and drinking — and remain socially distanced, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/campus-reopening/\">among a bevy of other precautions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This particular return, for pre-K through grade two, represents a lot of collaboration, a lot of problem solving, and we’re very happy that the day has finally arrived,” Stephens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"busd\"]Alexandra Phillips, a first grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary, said she was nervous but happy, as she welcomed her students back to campus — many of whom she’s never actually met in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At this point, I think I’m excited,” she said. “It’s been such a long haul and so many stops and starts and reshuffles and back to the drawing board, and there was some trepidation at first. But now seeing the excitement on my kids’ faces over Zoom, I’m just looking forward to seeing them all in person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If all goes according to plan, this week is just the beginning of a gradual \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/campus-reopening/\">return to in-person learning\u003c/a> for most Berkeley public school students who choose to participate. Students in third through eighth grade, and some older students in specialized learning programs, will have the option to begin returning to classrooms on April 12, and some high schoolers will begin returning on April 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone is choosing to come back, and the demographic breakdown of students returning to classes is not completely representative of Berkeley’s overall public school population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Among Berkeley families, white families are selecting to return to campus at the highest rate,” Stephens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As KQED \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11865148/berkeley-distance-learning-families-feel-some-relief-after-complaints-about-being-overlooked\">highlighted previously,\u003c/a> families in Berkeley opting to keep their children at home, in distanced learning, are more likely to be from communities of color and often be in lower-income groups.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nThat gap is widest between white and Black families, with about 84% of white Berkeley families with children in pre-K through second grade opting to send their children back to the classroom, compared with less than 60% of Black families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s worth noting that it’s the majority of every group that is selected to come back. But these differences are present and they’re concerning,” Stephens said. In a town hall earlier this month, he reassured concerned families who have opted out of in-person schooling that their children would continue to receive online instruction from their regular teachers — not from substitutes, as some had feared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been very important to us that we acknowledge that some families are simply not ready and that we must provide a high-quality alternative for those families,” Stephens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Vanessa Rancaño and Lily Jamali contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been a big day for some Berkeley students and parents who have endured a challenging, seemingly endless year of closed classrooms and online learning. On Monday, nearly all Berkeley public elementary schools resumed in-person classes, opening their doors to children in pre-K through second grade — one of the first districts in the region to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting to this point has been no small feat, involving months of tense negotiations between the Berkeley Unified School District and the teachers union, as well as sometimes strained involvement from groups of passionate, increasingly frustrated parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day was a moment of excitement and a huge relief, if not some trepidation, for scores of students and parents, especially those who have staunchly advocated for schools to reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, more than 76% of Berkeley students in pre-K through second grade plan to return to in-person learning, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/2021/03/reopening-information-sessions-and-solidarity-reapertura-sesiones-informativas-y-solidaridad/\">district enrollment data\u003c/a>, while more than 18% of students are expected to continue with distance learning. About 5% of students’ families didn’t respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caroline Francis, who has a first grader at Berkeley’s Malcolm X Elementary School, said she trusts that the district has the process under control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been following the school board meetings and reading the documents that they send us, and I know that they’ve done a ton of work to prepare and that the city public health department has been really involved,” she said. “So I’m very confident that they’re ready for this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11867039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/BAM-scaled-e1617077662182.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11867039 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/BAM-scaled-e1617077662182.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A long line of students and parents outside of Berkeley Arts Magnet School on Monday morning, March 29, the first day of in-person classes in over a year. \u003ccite>(Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The safety of students and staff will be top of mind, BUSD Superintendent Brent Stephens told KQED. Everyone, he said, will be given a “health screener” each morning, and will be required to wear face coverings — except when eating and drinking — and remain socially distanced, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/campus-reopening/\">among a bevy of other precautions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This particular return, for pre-K through grade two, represents a lot of collaboration, a lot of problem solving, and we’re very happy that the day has finally arrived,” Stephens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alexandra Phillips, a first grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary, said she was nervous but happy, as she welcomed her students back to campus — many of whom she’s never actually met in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At this point, I think I’m excited,” she said. “It’s been such a long haul and so many stops and starts and reshuffles and back to the drawing board, and there was some trepidation at first. But now seeing the excitement on my kids’ faces over Zoom, I’m just looking forward to seeing them all in person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If all goes according to plan, this week is just the beginning of a gradual \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/campus-reopening/\">return to in-person learning\u003c/a> for most Berkeley public school students who choose to participate. Students in third through eighth grade, and some older students in specialized learning programs, will have the option to begin returning to classrooms on April 12, and some high schoolers will begin returning on April 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone is choosing to come back, and the demographic breakdown of students returning to classes is not completely representative of Berkeley’s overall public school population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Among Berkeley families, white families are selecting to return to campus at the highest rate,” Stephens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As KQED \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11865148/berkeley-distance-learning-families-feel-some-relief-after-complaints-about-being-overlooked\">highlighted previously,\u003c/a> families in Berkeley opting to keep their children at home, in distanced learning, are more likely to be from communities of color and often be in lower-income groups.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nThat gap is widest between white and Black families, with about 84% of white Berkeley families with children in pre-K through second grade opting to send their children back to the classroom, compared with less than 60% of Black families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s worth noting that it’s the majority of every group that is selected to come back. But these differences are present and they’re concerning,” Stephens said. In a town hall earlier this month, he reassured concerned families who have opted out of in-person schooling that their children would continue to receive online instruction from their regular teachers — not from substitutes, as some had feared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been very important to us that we acknowledge that some families are simply not ready and that we must provide a high-quality alternative for those families,” Stephens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Vanessa Rancaño and Lily Jamali contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-generations-of-berkeley-high-students-forced-a-reckoning-about-sexual-abuse",
"title": "How Generations of Berkeley High Students Forced a Reckoning About Sexual Abuse",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Women’s Student Union at Berkeley High School \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/2021/03/11/womens-student-union-at-berkeley-high-sues-dept-of-ed-to-overturn-trump-era-sexual-misconduct-rules\">sued the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month\u003c/a> over Title IX rules adopted during the Trump administration that govern how schools respond to cases of sexual harassment and assault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/05/06/851733630/federal-rules-give-more-protection-to-students-accused-of-sexual-assault\">announced last May and implemented in August under former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos \u003c/a>, offer more protections for students who are accused of sexual misconduct. They apply to colleges as well as K-12 schools. The Women’s Student Union – a student-founded and student-led group that advocates for policies to reduce sexual harassment on Berkeley High’s campus – argued in its \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20517245-20210308-doc-1-complaint\">lawsuit\u003c/a> that the policy discourages students from reporting harassment and schools from investigating complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This latest action by students comes more than a year after victims and advocates at Berkeley High organized a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801840/reckoning-with-sexual-assault-at-berkeley-high-school\">walkout\u003c/a> in February 2020 to demand changes over how misconduct was handled on their own campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ayisha Friedman, Berkeley High alum\"]‘I was always seeing somebody who had done something or experienced something or a hallway where something had been done. It’s always on your mind and it’s always breaking your heart.’[/pullquote]“We were realizing that a lot of the issues that students at Berkeley High were facing stemmed from national policies,” said Ava, a junior at Berkeley High and one of the students who filed the lawsuit. “And if we could change national policies, we could help people at every school in the United States, not just Berkeley High.” KQED is identifying Ava by only her first name over fears she could face harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the year since the walkout, the Berkeley Unified School District has adopted some changes in response to students’ demands. In December, the district \u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyhighjacket.com/2020/features/busd-implements-title-ix-reform-demanded-by-students/\">announced\u003c/a> they had hired a full-time Title IX coordinator and investigator, and set up a committee of mostly Berkeley High School students to lead some of the changes around consent education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not the first time the district’s students and adult advocates have demanded changes in how their schools handle misconduct complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A History of Activism at Berkeley High\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Berkeley High alum Liana Thomason and her classmates \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10392296/berkeley-high-students-trying-to-change-schools-sexual-harassment-policy\">started the group BHS Stop Harassing\u003c/a>. She said they founded the group after comments made during a school assembly seemed to blame harassment on the ways students dressed. But Thomason said the need was about more than just those comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The unofficial story is that there had just been this culture of harassment in Berkeley High and middle school. There was Slap Ass Friday where boys would slap the girls’ asses on Friday,” Thomason said. “And it was just like, ‘This is what the world is like. That’s fine.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the assembly, Thomason invited a group of female friends to her house to talk about what they saw as a culture of unchecked harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We realized that we had to say something. We had to let the school know that it was not OK,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Maha Ibrahim, attorney with Equal Rights Advocates\"]‘Not only was there an assumption that students wouldn’t face these issues at school, but there was a resistance to admit it could possibly be a problem. It was sort of like, ‘Well, this can’t be us. We’re Berkeley.”[/pullquote]Berkeley High students had also \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailycal.org/2015/10/02/berkeley-unified-school-district-inadequately-handles-sexual-harassment/\">created\u003c/a> an Instagram account on which some female students were referred to as “sluts” alongside degrading photos of them. Thomason was also motivated to address these issues after her sister was sexually assaulted at a middle school bike cage in 2014. She said the school responded by setting up a restorative justice circle that traumatized her sister even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomason’s mother, Heidi Goldstein, became an adviser for BHS Stop Harassing and is still working on these issues today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started researching Title IX and school district policies,” Goldstein said. “And that’s where I came to the conclusion that the whole system was just in disarray. There was no system and there really was no process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865854\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11865854\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liana Thomason, right, a Berkeley High alum, founded the group BHS Stop Harassing. Her mother Heidi Goldstein continues to be an adult adviser for the group. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Goldstein filed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/OCR-Letter-1-14-2015.pdf\">complaint\u003c/a> with the U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights about how the school handled misconduct complaints, prompting an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of BHS Stop Harassing began showing up at school board meetings to demand better policies around sexual harassment and more training for teachers as well as education for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Berkeley Public School District places an immense value on student safety and well-being,” former BUSD Superintendent Donald Evans and BUSD Board President Judy Appel wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Sexual-Harrassment-Letter-v4c-1-7-.pdf\">letter\u003c/a> to district families at the time. “Based on student, teacher, and community feedback about this and other related issues, we have come to realize that there is an urgent need to work on developing a culture focused on prevention of sexual harassment, not simply reacting to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Wild West of Title IX Regulations\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Maha Ibrahim, an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equity in schools, has worked with Berkeley High students. She said few schools do a sufficient job responding to sexual harassment or assault claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal rules and regulations for Title IX have been written for universities – and schools K-12 were an afterthought,” Ibrahim said. “It’s like the Wild West. It’s a lot of individual adults who are shooting from the hip when approached with difficult or traumatic experiences of their students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11859164 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS46527_003_SanFrancisco_LowellHS_01092021-qut-1038x576.jpg']According to a new \u003ca href=\"https://www.knowyourix.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Know-Your-IX-2021-Report-Final-Copy.pdf\">report\u003c/a> from the advocacy group Know Your IX, a survey of more than 100 students found that 20% of students who reported sexual violence to their school transferred schools, and nearly 10% dropped out entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she said Berkeley’s progressive image also made it difficult for some to acknowledge that some students felt unsafe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only was there an assumption that students wouldn’t face these issues at school, but there was a resistance to admit it could possibly be a problem,” Ibrahim said. “It was sort of like, ‘Well, this can’t be us. We’re Berkeley.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to demands from students made in 2014, the district \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ActionStepstoAddressSexualHarassment3.8.17.docx-1.pdf\">said\u003c/a> it expanded an advisory committee to create a comprehensive sexual harassment policy, held restorative justice circles for students who were targeted by sexual harassment and established a Title IX coordinator and compliance officer position.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Lawsuit and a Sexual Assault Reported on Campus\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But students say the problems continued. The district was sued by a student over its handling of a sexual assault allegation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges a student was sexually assaulted by another student during school hours in an unlocked classroom at Berkeley High in 2019. It claims the district failed to take steps to adequately ensure the victim’s safety. KQED is identifying the student as “Faith” to protect her identity over concerns for her safety. In the lawsuit, she is identified as “Jane Doe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faith said she kept seeing her assailant on campus after the assault, and that he continued to sexually harass her. She said she had meltdowns for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Usually, I’m a happy, goofy person. My teachers were just worried, and they would always just look at me and they’re like, ‘You look so sad,’ ” Faith said. “They would try to help me get back to how I used to be. And it was just hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865919\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11865919\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Faith sits with hands on knees, only legs and shoes visible\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faith, a former Berkeley High student, sued the district in January 2020 over its handling of her sexual assault allegations against a fellow student. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Faith and her parents decided it was too much, and she transferred into an independent studies program. Attorneys for the district argued in a court filing that administrators worked with Faith to make sure she was safe, and they tried to limit the potential for contact between the two students. They said district personnel were responsive to Faith’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faith \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/RG20052743-Doe-VS-Berkeley-Unified-School-District.pdf\">sued the district\u003c/a> in January 2020 before she left Berkeley High the next month, and she said students at the school began talking about the case, trying to guess the identity of Jane Doe. She said it was scary, but that she also felt resilient knowing she had helped spark a larger conversation about safety on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want there to be a change, especially being a person of color. I became a person of color who was also assaulted,” Faith said. “It was just something I had to speak up on, because my voice is not heard by a lot of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Names on the Bathroom Stall\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some Berkeley High students had already thought the school had a culture where sexual misconduct was swept under the rug, but the lawsuit Faith filed seemed to break something open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days after the lawsuit was filed, a group of Berkeley High students began writing the names of alleged perpetrators on a bathroom stall. In black ink, they wrote “Boys To Watch Out 4,” followed by several names and the words “rapist” and “abuser.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11864779\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11864779\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_0893-e1616451221449.jpg\" alt=\"Ayisha Friedman sitting outside, arms crossed\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ayisha Friedman organized a walkout over sexual harassment and assault at Berkeley High in February 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ayisha Friedman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ayisha Friedman, a senior at Berkeley High during this time, said she saw the list during first or second period. Reading the list, Friedman thought about her friends who’d been harassed or assaulted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was always seeing somebody who had done something or experienced something or a hallway where something had been done. It’s always on your mind and it’s always breaking your heart,” Friedman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friedman said a lot of the boys were popular and known for inappropriate behavior around young women. She said the list was impossible to ignore. By the end of the school day, a picture of the stall had been shared on Instagram, and it felt like everyone in the school had seen it and had something to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that goes both ways. That goes people who were defending these women and who are saying, ‘I believe you, I am here for you,’ ” Friedman said. “And then people on the other side who were like, ‘Anybody could have written this. And this is a lie.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Walkout Gets the District’s Attention\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Several students who spoke to KQED described a climate at the high school where victims who reported their assaults to administrators were questioned or doubted by their peers. Students wanted the school district to do more to support victims and keep them safe on campus. Friedman and others began organizing a walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mia Redmond, one of the organizers, reported her own sexual assault about a week before the walkout in February 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was in the midst of a really hard situation. But we were all coming together and working on something that we really cared about,” Redmond said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she found a supportive community during a time when others were gossiping about her experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so tense,” said Sophia Kerievsky, another organizer and friend of Redmond. “I remember people were pointing at me in the courtyard, and just really attacking my character, and especially her character. It was this strange energy. It was a lot of girls who were standing up for her, and then a huge group of boys standing by his side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11864969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11864969\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/BHS_Rape_Walkout-17-1-1-scaled-e1616451482414.jpg\" alt=\"BHS students behind podium during walkout\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1353\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School students organized a walkout in February 2020 to address sexual harassment and assault on campus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Mia Redmond)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The day of the walkout, Redmond wasn’t sure how many people would show up. So when she looked out at the courtyard, she was stunned by the support, and said the entire courtyard was filled with students, staff and administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in it. At the time I was feeling a lot of lack of understanding,” Redmond said. “And it definitely gave me a group of people who I was like, ‘I can trust these people. These people support me, and I want to support these people.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Practical and Philosophical Set of Demands\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The students drafted up specific demands, such as more resources for the Title IX office handling misconduct complaints, expanded consent education and policies stating that perpetrators found to be guilty by the school would be suspended from school-sanctioned events. They wanted to create a culture where victims could heal, and for the school to continue the conversation long after they had graduated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Brent Stephens had begun working for the district less than a year before the walkout, and he said many of the students’ requests were practical, and that change felt necessary. There had also been high turnover in the district’s Title IX coordinator role, with at least six different people working in that position from 2015 to 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students, he said, had done their homework, and met with teachers, staff and adult advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so when they came with a set of demands, they were sort of philosophical in nature, but they were very pragmatic as well,” Stephens said. “It was … a political moment, but it resonated with what I and many others saw as legitimate needs of the district.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Conversation Continues Online\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Just weeks after the walkout, schools shut down because of COVID-19. And as everyone focused on the pandemic, the momentum began to fade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, Annette Kwon, a former Berkeley High student now at Branham High School in San Jose, decided to find another way to restart the conversation. Over the summer, she made a TikTok video showing the faces of alleged perpetrators at Berkeley High and Lowell High School in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865849\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11865849\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_6669.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_6669.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_6669-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annette Kwon, a former Berkeley High student, created a TikTok video to continue a public conversation around sexual harassment and assault in high school. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Annette Kwon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When the quarantine started, everything died down,” she said. “And I just felt like it was necessary that the topic stays relevant, because if it had faded out once again, nothing would change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video received over 100,000 views, and soon students throughout the Bay Area launched Instagram accounts for people to post their experiences of harassment and assault anonymously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mia Redmond remembered seeing dozens of stories of harassment and assault posted on an Instagram account called BHS Protectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just felt like everyone was coming together again, and addressing the issue again that we had done in February,” Redmond said. “It was powerful to see not only so many people at Berkeley High being able to tell their stories, that they couldn’t talk about before, but also other schools following that, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Education Coverage' tag='education']But for others, the account was also overwhelming, especially during a pandemic that left so many people isolated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people were like, ‘I’m in a pandemic, I’m in my room 24/7. This is already messing with my mental health. And everyday I open my Instagram and I’m reminded of my own trauma,’ ” said Ayisha Friedman, another walkout organizer, of people she knew who had seen the account. “Where does the conversation go? You’re stuck in your room with no support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trish McDermott, a spokesperson for the Berkeley Unified School District, said in a statement that administrators reached out to those who posted about incidents of sexual harm, discrimination or racism, and those who were named in the posts. She said administrators also informed police and Child Protective Services about the account and specific allegations that could be traced to any students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The account has since been removed, and now students who participated in the walkout are hoping some of the cultural shifts inspired by their organizing will last when the pandemic is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>District Announces Changes, and the Culture Begins to Shift\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ultraviolet Schneider-Dwyer, a senior at Berkeley High, said that before the walkout a lot of the incidents of harassment and assault occurred during parties where young people were too intoxicated to consent. She’s hopeful her peers will no longer tolerate that culture after so many students shared their experiences of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There will be more social consequences than there are administrative or academically,” she said. “At the same time, I’m just making sure that they’re not doing it out of fear of not being accepted, but they’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Mia Redmond is a part of a committee to give students a chance to provide the school with input on issues like harassment and consent education. She feels like the district is taking students’ demands seriously. She’s graduating this year and plans to continue her advocacy after high school. And she said it will be up to future generations of Berkeley High students as well as administrators to make sure the changes she and others started will last.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t say for certain whether [the walkout] changed the culture at Berkeley High, but it definitely brought up a conversation that wasn’t being had before,” Redmond said. “It was such a monumental thing in Berkeley High history that everyone who experienced it, they’re not going to forget about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://revealnews.org/podcast/protecting-kids-from-abuse/\">This story\u003c/a> was reported in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. It was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Impact Fund.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Women’s Student Union at Berkeley High School \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/2021/03/11/womens-student-union-at-berkeley-high-sues-dept-of-ed-to-overturn-trump-era-sexual-misconduct-rules\">sued the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month\u003c/a> over Title IX rules adopted during the Trump administration that govern how schools respond to cases of sexual harassment and assault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/05/06/851733630/federal-rules-give-more-protection-to-students-accused-of-sexual-assault\">announced last May and implemented in August under former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos \u003c/a>, offer more protections for students who are accused of sexual misconduct. They apply to colleges as well as K-12 schools. The Women’s Student Union – a student-founded and student-led group that advocates for policies to reduce sexual harassment on Berkeley High’s campus – argued in its \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20517245-20210308-doc-1-complaint\">lawsuit\u003c/a> that the policy discourages students from reporting harassment and schools from investigating complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This latest action by students comes more than a year after victims and advocates at Berkeley High organized a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801840/reckoning-with-sexual-assault-at-berkeley-high-school\">walkout\u003c/a> in February 2020 to demand changes over how misconduct was handled on their own campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We were realizing that a lot of the issues that students at Berkeley High were facing stemmed from national policies,” said Ava, a junior at Berkeley High and one of the students who filed the lawsuit. “And if we could change national policies, we could help people at every school in the United States, not just Berkeley High.” KQED is identifying Ava by only her first name over fears she could face harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the year since the walkout, the Berkeley Unified School District has adopted some changes in response to students’ demands. In December, the district \u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyhighjacket.com/2020/features/busd-implements-title-ix-reform-demanded-by-students/\">announced\u003c/a> they had hired a full-time Title IX coordinator and investigator, and set up a committee of mostly Berkeley High School students to lead some of the changes around consent education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not the first time the district’s students and adult advocates have demanded changes in how their schools handle misconduct complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A History of Activism at Berkeley High\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Berkeley High alum Liana Thomason and her classmates \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10392296/berkeley-high-students-trying-to-change-schools-sexual-harassment-policy\">started the group BHS Stop Harassing\u003c/a>. She said they founded the group after comments made during a school assembly seemed to blame harassment on the ways students dressed. But Thomason said the need was about more than just those comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The unofficial story is that there had just been this culture of harassment in Berkeley High and middle school. There was Slap Ass Friday where boys would slap the girls’ asses on Friday,” Thomason said. “And it was just like, ‘This is what the world is like. That’s fine.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the assembly, Thomason invited a group of female friends to her house to talk about what they saw as a culture of unchecked harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We realized that we had to say something. We had to let the school know that it was not OK,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Not only was there an assumption that students wouldn’t face these issues at school, but there was a resistance to admit it could possibly be a problem. It was sort of like, ‘Well, this can’t be us. We’re Berkeley.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Berkeley High students had also \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailycal.org/2015/10/02/berkeley-unified-school-district-inadequately-handles-sexual-harassment/\">created\u003c/a> an Instagram account on which some female students were referred to as “sluts” alongside degrading photos of them. Thomason was also motivated to address these issues after her sister was sexually assaulted at a middle school bike cage in 2014. She said the school responded by setting up a restorative justice circle that traumatized her sister even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomason’s mother, Heidi Goldstein, became an adviser for BHS Stop Harassing and is still working on these issues today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started researching Title IX and school district policies,” Goldstein said. “And that’s where I came to the conclusion that the whole system was just in disarray. There was no system and there really was no process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865854\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11865854\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47860_015_Berkeley_LianaThomason_03162021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liana Thomason, right, a Berkeley High alum, founded the group BHS Stop Harassing. Her mother Heidi Goldstein continues to be an adult adviser for the group. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Goldstein filed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/OCR-Letter-1-14-2015.pdf\">complaint\u003c/a> with the U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights about how the school handled misconduct complaints, prompting an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of BHS Stop Harassing began showing up at school board meetings to demand better policies around sexual harassment and more training for teachers as well as education for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Berkeley Public School District places an immense value on student safety and well-being,” former BUSD Superintendent Donald Evans and BUSD Board President Judy Appel wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Sexual-Harrassment-Letter-v4c-1-7-.pdf\">letter\u003c/a> to district families at the time. “Based on student, teacher, and community feedback about this and other related issues, we have come to realize that there is an urgent need to work on developing a culture focused on prevention of sexual harassment, not simply reacting to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Wild West of Title IX Regulations\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Maha Ibrahim, an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equity in schools, has worked with Berkeley High students. She said few schools do a sufficient job responding to sexual harassment or assault claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal rules and regulations for Title IX have been written for universities – and schools K-12 were an afterthought,” Ibrahim said. “It’s like the Wild West. It’s a lot of individual adults who are shooting from the hip when approached with difficult or traumatic experiences of their students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>According to a new \u003ca href=\"https://www.knowyourix.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Know-Your-IX-2021-Report-Final-Copy.pdf\">report\u003c/a> from the advocacy group Know Your IX, a survey of more than 100 students found that 20% of students who reported sexual violence to their school transferred schools, and nearly 10% dropped out entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she said Berkeley’s progressive image also made it difficult for some to acknowledge that some students felt unsafe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only was there an assumption that students wouldn’t face these issues at school, but there was a resistance to admit it could possibly be a problem,” Ibrahim said. “It was sort of like, ‘Well, this can’t be us. We’re Berkeley.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to demands from students made in 2014, the district \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ActionStepstoAddressSexualHarassment3.8.17.docx-1.pdf\">said\u003c/a> it expanded an advisory committee to create a comprehensive sexual harassment policy, held restorative justice circles for students who were targeted by sexual harassment and established a Title IX coordinator and compliance officer position.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Lawsuit and a Sexual Assault Reported on Campus\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But students say the problems continued. The district was sued by a student over its handling of a sexual assault allegation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges a student was sexually assaulted by another student during school hours in an unlocked classroom at Berkeley High in 2019. It claims the district failed to take steps to adequately ensure the victim’s safety. KQED is identifying the student as “Faith” to protect her identity over concerns for her safety. In the lawsuit, she is identified as “Jane Doe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faith said she kept seeing her assailant on campus after the assault, and that he continued to sexually harass her. She said she had meltdowns for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Usually, I’m a happy, goofy person. My teachers were just worried, and they would always just look at me and they’re like, ‘You look so sad,’ ” Faith said. “They would try to help me get back to how I used to be. And it was just hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865919\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11865919\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Faith sits with hands on knees, only legs and shoes visible\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS47697_008_Berkeley_AnonymousFormerStudent_03122021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faith, a former Berkeley High student, sued the district in January 2020 over its handling of her sexual assault allegations against a fellow student. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Faith and her parents decided it was too much, and she transferred into an independent studies program. Attorneys for the district argued in a court filing that administrators worked with Faith to make sure she was safe, and they tried to limit the potential for contact between the two students. They said district personnel were responsive to Faith’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faith \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/RG20052743-Doe-VS-Berkeley-Unified-School-District.pdf\">sued the district\u003c/a> in January 2020 before she left Berkeley High the next month, and she said students at the school began talking about the case, trying to guess the identity of Jane Doe. She said it was scary, but that she also felt resilient knowing she had helped spark a larger conversation about safety on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want there to be a change, especially being a person of color. I became a person of color who was also assaulted,” Faith said. “It was just something I had to speak up on, because my voice is not heard by a lot of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Names on the Bathroom Stall\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some Berkeley High students had already thought the school had a culture where sexual misconduct was swept under the rug, but the lawsuit Faith filed seemed to break something open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days after the lawsuit was filed, a group of Berkeley High students began writing the names of alleged perpetrators on a bathroom stall. In black ink, they wrote “Boys To Watch Out 4,” followed by several names and the words “rapist” and “abuser.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11864779\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11864779\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_0893-e1616451221449.jpg\" alt=\"Ayisha Friedman sitting outside, arms crossed\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ayisha Friedman organized a walkout over sexual harassment and assault at Berkeley High in February 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ayisha Friedman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ayisha Friedman, a senior at Berkeley High during this time, said she saw the list during first or second period. Reading the list, Friedman thought about her friends who’d been harassed or assaulted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was always seeing somebody who had done something or experienced something or a hallway where something had been done. It’s always on your mind and it’s always breaking your heart,” Friedman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friedman said a lot of the boys were popular and known for inappropriate behavior around young women. She said the list was impossible to ignore. By the end of the school day, a picture of the stall had been shared on Instagram, and it felt like everyone in the school had seen it and had something to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that goes both ways. That goes people who were defending these women and who are saying, ‘I believe you, I am here for you,’ ” Friedman said. “And then people on the other side who were like, ‘Anybody could have written this. And this is a lie.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Walkout Gets the District’s Attention\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Several students who spoke to KQED described a climate at the high school where victims who reported their assaults to administrators were questioned or doubted by their peers. Students wanted the school district to do more to support victims and keep them safe on campus. Friedman and others began organizing a walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mia Redmond, one of the organizers, reported her own sexual assault about a week before the walkout in February 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was in the midst of a really hard situation. But we were all coming together and working on something that we really cared about,” Redmond said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she found a supportive community during a time when others were gossiping about her experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so tense,” said Sophia Kerievsky, another organizer and friend of Redmond. “I remember people were pointing at me in the courtyard, and just really attacking my character, and especially her character. It was this strange energy. It was a lot of girls who were standing up for her, and then a huge group of boys standing by his side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11864969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11864969\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/BHS_Rape_Walkout-17-1-1-scaled-e1616451482414.jpg\" alt=\"BHS students behind podium during walkout\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1353\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School students organized a walkout in February 2020 to address sexual harassment and assault on campus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Mia Redmond)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The day of the walkout, Redmond wasn’t sure how many people would show up. So when she looked out at the courtyard, she was stunned by the support, and said the entire courtyard was filled with students, staff and administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in it. At the time I was feeling a lot of lack of understanding,” Redmond said. “And it definitely gave me a group of people who I was like, ‘I can trust these people. These people support me, and I want to support these people.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Practical and Philosophical Set of Demands\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The students drafted up specific demands, such as more resources for the Title IX office handling misconduct complaints, expanded consent education and policies stating that perpetrators found to be guilty by the school would be suspended from school-sanctioned events. They wanted to create a culture where victims could heal, and for the school to continue the conversation long after they had graduated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Brent Stephens had begun working for the district less than a year before the walkout, and he said many of the students’ requests were practical, and that change felt necessary. There had also been high turnover in the district’s Title IX coordinator role, with at least six different people working in that position from 2015 to 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students, he said, had done their homework, and met with teachers, staff and adult advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so when they came with a set of demands, they were sort of philosophical in nature, but they were very pragmatic as well,” Stephens said. “It was … a political moment, but it resonated with what I and many others saw as legitimate needs of the district.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Conversation Continues Online\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Just weeks after the walkout, schools shut down because of COVID-19. And as everyone focused on the pandemic, the momentum began to fade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, Annette Kwon, a former Berkeley High student now at Branham High School in San Jose, decided to find another way to restart the conversation. Over the summer, she made a TikTok video showing the faces of alleged perpetrators at Berkeley High and Lowell High School in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865849\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11865849\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_6669.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_6669.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/IMG_6669-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annette Kwon, a former Berkeley High student, created a TikTok video to continue a public conversation around sexual harassment and assault in high school. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Annette Kwon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When the quarantine started, everything died down,” she said. “And I just felt like it was necessary that the topic stays relevant, because if it had faded out once again, nothing would change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video received over 100,000 views, and soon students throughout the Bay Area launched Instagram accounts for people to post their experiences of harassment and assault anonymously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mia Redmond remembered seeing dozens of stories of harassment and assault posted on an Instagram account called BHS Protectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just felt like everyone was coming together again, and addressing the issue again that we had done in February,” Redmond said. “It was powerful to see not only so many people at Berkeley High being able to tell their stories, that they couldn’t talk about before, but also other schools following that, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But for others, the account was also overwhelming, especially during a pandemic that left so many people isolated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people were like, ‘I’m in a pandemic, I’m in my room 24/7. This is already messing with my mental health. And everyday I open my Instagram and I’m reminded of my own trauma,’ ” said Ayisha Friedman, another walkout organizer, of people she knew who had seen the account. “Where does the conversation go? You’re stuck in your room with no support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trish McDermott, a spokesperson for the Berkeley Unified School District, said in a statement that administrators reached out to those who posted about incidents of sexual harm, discrimination or racism, and those who were named in the posts. She said administrators also informed police and Child Protective Services about the account and specific allegations that could be traced to any students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The account has since been removed, and now students who participated in the walkout are hoping some of the cultural shifts inspired by their organizing will last when the pandemic is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>District Announces Changes, and the Culture Begins to Shift\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ultraviolet Schneider-Dwyer, a senior at Berkeley High, said that before the walkout a lot of the incidents of harassment and assault occurred during parties where young people were too intoxicated to consent. She’s hopeful her peers will no longer tolerate that culture after so many students shared their experiences of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There will be more social consequences than there are administrative or academically,” she said. “At the same time, I’m just making sure that they’re not doing it out of fear of not being accepted, but they’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Mia Redmond is a part of a committee to give students a chance to provide the school with input on issues like harassment and consent education. She feels like the district is taking students’ demands seriously. She’s graduating this year and plans to continue her advocacy after high school. And she said it will be up to future generations of Berkeley High students as well as administrators to make sure the changes she and others started will last.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t say for certain whether [the walkout] changed the culture at Berkeley High, but it definitely brought up a conversation that wasn’t being had before,” Redmond said. “It was such a monumental thing in Berkeley High history that everyone who experienced it, they’re not going to forget about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://revealnews.org/podcast/protecting-kids-from-abuse/\">This story\u003c/a> was reported in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. It was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Impact Fund.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Berkeley parents who were upset about the school district’s plan for families who have chosen to remain in distance learning even as in-person classes resume saw some of their concerns alleviated this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After families learned last week that children who stay in distance learning would lose their teachers and might be taught by substitutes, a group of predominantly Black and Latino parents expressed outrage that distance learners were being relegated to a “second-class” educational experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The anger was fueled by a lack of details and a tight timeline to make a decision about whether to send kids back in person, which galvanized parents to form a new parent advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at town hall meetings for parents this week, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens assured families that although the majority of distance learning students will be assigned new teachers, they would be full-time Berkeley Unified teachers, not substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re our teachers, they have a lot of experience,” Stephens said, adding that distance learning students will be matched with teachers of the same grade level, and those who receive special education, reading intervention or other specialized services will have the same teachers they do now. An extra virtual class per day will also be added for distance learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another big change is that parents will now get two opportunities to switch which of the two programs they’re in, once before students begin returning in person on March 29 and again in early May. Parents were previously told their decision would be final.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like things are moving in the right direction,” said Malcolm X Elementary School parent Roberto Santiago, one of the parents who had concerns, in a text. “I am feeling better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gladys Ocampo Stout is opting to keep both of her kids home, in part because she has a son with asthma. She and other parents of kids who go to Sylvia Mendez Elementary School were especially worried about how teacher reassignment will affect students in the school’s Spanish immersion program. But at the town hall, Stephens said bilingual teachers from the same school will be available for those who stay in distance learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a relief for Ocampo Stout. Still, she expressed frustration that the reopening fight in Berkeley had devolved into what felt like parents fighting for their own kids to get back at the expense of hers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody was talking about equity, and then when it comes down to it, we’re just going to ignore that part,” she said. “I don’t dismiss the importance of opening up. I understand that there are kids that are seriously depressed, there are kids that are suicidal. It’s about understanding and being compassionate — the world doesn’t revolve around you, there are other people here, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Stephens said reassigning students was one of the most difficult decisions the district had to confront. “I recognize it’s not the same,” he said. “We struggled a lot with this decision. We realize there’s an impact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district will aim to keep continuing remote learning students who are in the same class together, but they may now be grouped with kids from other schools. Under the plan, far fewer students returning in person will be assigned new teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, only 18% of families are opting to keep their kids in distance learning, according to the district. But some parents say they felt pressured into sending kids back in person, because the distance learning option seemed so inferior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt lots and lots of pressure,” said Maria Moreno, whose son goes to Sylvia Mendez Elementary. Her son has asthma, and she would much prefer to keep him home for the rest of the school year, but was so worried about him losing his teacher that she’s sending him back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to try it and see what happens,” she said. “But honestly, I’m still scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After much debate, Lizet Lopez, whose three children attend Thousand Oaks and Ruth Acty elementary schools, made the same call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s sending her kids back in person even though it makes her uncomfortable. “If they told me I will have my teachers and therapists if I stay online, I would stay online,” Lopez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Significant differences have emerged in which families are opting to put their kids in a classroom again and which are remaining remote-only: 28% of Black families, 23% of English learner families and 26% of socioeconomically disadvantaged families are opting for distance learning, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/2021/03/reopening-information-sessions-and-solidarity-reapertura-sesiones-informativas-y-solidaridad/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accordinging to district data\u003c/a>, compared to 13% of white families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t feel comfortable sending our kids back into this environment because systemic racism already hurt our kids, so what’s it going to look like when you add a pandemic?” Santiago said earlier this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s keeping his kids home out of safety concerns and to make space in the physical classrooms for those who really need to return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the district announced elementary schools would reopen in person five days a week, parents who spent months organizing rallies and pressuring local and state officials to reopen celebrated a major victory, but some Black and Latino parents were alarmed by a perceived lack of attention to students who will stick with learning from home, leading them to call into question the commitment to equity espoused throughout the reopening debate. Late last week, Santiago and other parents formed the group Berkeley Unified Distance Choice Advocates to bring together parents and teachers as advocates for families who are not sending their kids back to classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the district took steps to address their concerns, parent Ludovic Blain said a racial inequity existed. “White parents’ demands were met fully 100%,” he said, referring to those who organized for reopening. “Now we’re left with the scraps to try to piece together a semblance of distance learning.” Months before a reopening deal was reached, the teachers union warned of such a possibility in arguing for a measured approach to reopening that was often criticized as too slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blain is not ready to send his 11-year-old son back into a classroom at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School, due to “data-based hesitancy,” he said. As an African American, he’s watched the virus take a disproportionate toll on his community, and his wife is vulnerable because of a recent surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the situation appears improved for students like his son, who is in the Spanish immersion program, he’s feeling better, though his frustration with the process hasn’t ebbed. “This is all coming out a week \u003cem>after\u003c/em> families had to choose,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11865153 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-800x534.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-1020x681.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-1536x1026.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parents who’ve advocated to reopen schools for in-person classes are now focused on getting middle and high school students back to campus full time.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lei Levy, who leads a Berkeley parent group that pushed for reopening, expressed regret that the reopening process seemed to pit parents against each other. She takes issue with the characterization of parents who fought hard for the reopening of schools as predominantly affluent and white, and argues framing the issue as a fight between white parents and parents of color is an oversimplification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just happy that we’re finally at this place that both sides are being considered equally, because it felt like for so long only the distance learning families were being considered,” Levy said. “That’s why our group came into existence; we saw that nobody was advocating for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she welcomes having another group of parent advocates join the fray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents feel like, ‘Oh, wait, now I have to start advocating for my kids?’ Yeah, you do. We all have to step up right now because lazy policy is being steamrolled over us,” Levy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Distance Learning teacher assignments will be announced beginning next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post was updated with new enrollment decision data released by the district Friday evening. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Berkeley parents who were upset about the school district’s plan for families who have chosen to remain in distance learning even as in-person classes resume saw some of their concerns alleviated this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After families learned last week that children who stay in distance learning would lose their teachers and might be taught by substitutes, a group of predominantly Black and Latino parents expressed outrage that distance learners were being relegated to a “second-class” educational experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The anger was fueled by a lack of details and a tight timeline to make a decision about whether to send kids back in person, which galvanized parents to form a new parent advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at town hall meetings for parents this week, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens assured families that although the majority of distance learning students will be assigned new teachers, they would be full-time Berkeley Unified teachers, not substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re our teachers, they have a lot of experience,” Stephens said, adding that distance learning students will be matched with teachers of the same grade level, and those who receive special education, reading intervention or other specialized services will have the same teachers they do now. An extra virtual class per day will also be added for distance learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another big change is that parents will now get two opportunities to switch which of the two programs they’re in, once before students begin returning in person on March 29 and again in early May. Parents were previously told their decision would be final.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like things are moving in the right direction,” said Malcolm X Elementary School parent Roberto Santiago, one of the parents who had concerns, in a text. “I am feeling better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gladys Ocampo Stout is opting to keep both of her kids home, in part because she has a son with asthma. She and other parents of kids who go to Sylvia Mendez Elementary School were especially worried about how teacher reassignment will affect students in the school’s Spanish immersion program. But at the town hall, Stephens said bilingual teachers from the same school will be available for those who stay in distance learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a relief for Ocampo Stout. Still, she expressed frustration that the reopening fight in Berkeley had devolved into what felt like parents fighting for their own kids to get back at the expense of hers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody was talking about equity, and then when it comes down to it, we’re just going to ignore that part,” she said. “I don’t dismiss the importance of opening up. I understand that there are kids that are seriously depressed, there are kids that are suicidal. It’s about understanding and being compassionate — the world doesn’t revolve around you, there are other people here, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Stephens said reassigning students was one of the most difficult decisions the district had to confront. “I recognize it’s not the same,” he said. “We struggled a lot with this decision. We realize there’s an impact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district will aim to keep continuing remote learning students who are in the same class together, but they may now be grouped with kids from other schools. Under the plan, far fewer students returning in person will be assigned new teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, only 18% of families are opting to keep their kids in distance learning, according to the district. But some parents say they felt pressured into sending kids back in person, because the distance learning option seemed so inferior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt lots and lots of pressure,” said Maria Moreno, whose son goes to Sylvia Mendez Elementary. Her son has asthma, and she would much prefer to keep him home for the rest of the school year, but was so worried about him losing his teacher that she’s sending him back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to try it and see what happens,” she said. “But honestly, I’m still scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After much debate, Lizet Lopez, whose three children attend Thousand Oaks and Ruth Acty elementary schools, made the same call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s sending her kids back in person even though it makes her uncomfortable. “If they told me I will have my teachers and therapists if I stay online, I would stay online,” Lopez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Significant differences have emerged in which families are opting to put their kids in a classroom again and which are remaining remote-only: 28% of Black families, 23% of English learner families and 26% of socioeconomically disadvantaged families are opting for distance learning, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyschools.net/2021/03/reopening-information-sessions-and-solidarity-reapertura-sesiones-informativas-y-solidaridad/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accordinging to district data\u003c/a>, compared to 13% of white families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t feel comfortable sending our kids back into this environment because systemic racism already hurt our kids, so what’s it going to look like when you add a pandemic?” Santiago said earlier this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s keeping his kids home out of safety concerns and to make space in the physical classrooms for those who really need to return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the district announced elementary schools would reopen in person five days a week, parents who spent months organizing rallies and pressuring local and state officials to reopen celebrated a major victory, but some Black and Latino parents were alarmed by a perceived lack of attention to students who will stick with learning from home, leading them to call into question the commitment to equity espoused throughout the reopening debate. Late last week, Santiago and other parents formed the group Berkeley Unified Distance Choice Advocates to bring together parents and teachers as advocates for families who are not sending their kids back to classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the district took steps to address their concerns, parent Ludovic Blain said a racial inequity existed. “White parents’ demands were met fully 100%,” he said, referring to those who organized for reopening. “Now we’re left with the scraps to try to piece together a semblance of distance learning.” Months before a reopening deal was reached, the teachers union warned of such a possibility in arguing for a measured approach to reopening that was often criticized as too slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blain is not ready to send his 11-year-old son back into a classroom at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School, due to “data-based hesitancy,” he said. As an African American, he’s watched the virus take a disproportionate toll on his community, and his wife is vulnerable because of a recent surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the situation appears improved for students like his son, who is in the Spanish immersion program, he’s feeling better, though his frustration with the process hasn’t ebbed. “This is all coming out a week \u003cem>after\u003c/em> families had to choose,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11865153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11865153 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-800x534.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-1020x681.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut-1536x1026.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/RS46594_012_KQED_Berkeley_SchoolSitIn_01132021-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parents who’ve advocated to reopen schools for in-person classes are now focused on getting middle and high school students back to campus full time.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lei Levy, who leads a Berkeley parent group that pushed for reopening, expressed regret that the reopening process seemed to pit parents against each other. She takes issue with the characterization of parents who fought hard for the reopening of schools as predominantly affluent and white, and argues framing the issue as a fight between white parents and parents of color is an oversimplification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just happy that we’re finally at this place that both sides are being considered equally, because it felt like for so long only the distance learning families were being considered,” Levy said. “That’s why our group came into existence; we saw that nobody was advocating for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she welcomes having another group of parent advocates join the fray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents feel like, ‘Oh, wait, now I have to start advocating for my kids?’ Yeah, you do. We all have to step up right now because lazy policy is being steamrolled over us,” Levy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Distance Learning teacher assignments will be announced beginning next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post was updated with new enrollment decision data released by the district Friday evening. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Repulsive. Bullying. Disturbing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are the words Berkeley parents are using to describe an attack-style video posted over the weekend by a group calling itself “Guerilla Momz.” The video shows Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Matt Meyer dropping off his daughter at in-person preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín issued a statement about the video on Tuesday, calling to calm conflict and division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all have the same goal and want what is best for our children,” he wrote. “Stalking the President of the Berkeley Teachers Federation and his young child unnecessarily stokes divisions and creates polarization at a time when we need unity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11862469\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Guerilla Momz group claimed hypocrisy on the part of a union leader who fought for teacher vaccinations for safety reasons before returning his teachers to classrooms, and for publicly questioning how well kids could adhere to masking requirements. The video soon went viral. Local outlets like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11862469/after-leading-school-closures-berkeley-teachers-union-president-spotted-dropping-daughter-off-at-in-person-preschool\">KQED\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Video-of-Berkeley-teachers-union-chief-taking-15990654.php\">the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/03/01/video-berkeley-teachers-union-president-criticized-as-hypocrite-for-taking-kid-to-school/\">Mercury News\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/01/covid-group-calls-berkeley-teachers-union-leader-a-hypocrite-for-taking-child-to-private-preschool/\">KPIX\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coronavirus/berkeley-teachers-union-leader-criticized-after-video-surfaces/2480330/\">NBC Bay Area covered it\u003c/a>, splashing the video across television sets around the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was also retweeted by Donald Trump Jr., and landed on the homepage of national outlets like \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-does-california-teachers-union-president-send-own-child-person-school-1572992\">Newsweek\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/california-teachers-union-head-slammed-for-taking-kid-to-school/\">New York Post\u003c/a>, Fox News and conservative websites like The Blaze and Breitbart, where it was derided by political conservatives. Soon, people across the nation furious over the pace of school reopenings set their sights on Berkeley, and its teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that fury took an emotional toll on some Berkeley teachers and parents. And some firmly disagreed with groups pushing for reopening schools that any “hypocrisy” had taken place at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/GuerillaMomz\">Guerilla Momz\u003c/a> seized specifically on one issue: a high-profile union official with the power over thousands of families’ futures who publicly argued teachers needed vaccines in order to safely mingle with children from varying households, and that schools could not be reopened until that criterion was met, but who then freely allowed his own child to mingle with other households and caregivers who may not necessarily have been vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, they argued his public statements did not meet his private life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Peter Ross, Berkeley Unified parent\"]‘Rather than attacking our teachers, community members should be advocating for more resources for them. What is at risk here is the community’s overall support of a healthy education system that serves all of our children.’[/pullquote]But many in the community instead seized on the idea of a public school versus private, and argued there are no public preschools for children the age of Meyer’s toddler, rendering the argument a nonissue. They also saw a union leader working hard to represent the voices of his union members, and did not believe his role in deciding school reopenings met the threshold to publicly debate his private choices. They said he was a parent who, like many parents, faced few good choices about how to provide child care for a toddler while balancing work and community life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If folks want to do something, the productive thing is to create a community dialogue where you bring together different stakeholders and you do it in a constructive, positive way, not hiding behind anonymous Twitter names,” said Peter Ross, a Berkeley parent. “Instead, put your name out there and do something productive, bring folks together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents and teachers alike also critiqued the reopening schools groups for amplifying the voices of predominantly white, affluent parents who were crying out for “equity” in the name of marginalized students while ignoring the needs and desires of those communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED heard from many who were disheartened and felt their voices were lost in the outcry of more privileged parents who have been the most vocal for reopenings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have collected some of the testimonials, here:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My heart is heavy. My community is falling apart. My instinct is to run away and hide. I don’t like that.” — Sara Hougan, Berkeley Unified parent\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frankly revolting to attack teachers at this time, because every educator I know is working more hours with more stress to care for our children than they ever have before. Vilifying our teachers and their union is completely unproductive. Rather than attacking our teachers, community members should be advocating for more resources for them. What is at risk here is the community’s overall support of a healthy education system that serves all of our children well.” — Peter Ross, Berkeley Unified parent\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What exactly is the hypocrisy? …that some teachers have found private child care for their young children so that they can do their jobs while working tirelessly to figure out the incredibly complex issue surrounding school’s opening in person? Is the hypocrisy that there is a small, minority of parents who have used their privilege and power to create a public narrative which claims to speak for us all, but actually doesn’t?” — Allison Krasnow, Willard Middle School eighth grade math teacher, via her blog\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really upsetting as a parent to sort of see the narrative building of parents versus teachers, because I don’t actually think that’s a fair representation of where we truly are as a community. I’m a parent volunteer and so I do a lot of work on the PTA working closely with the principals to find out exactly how parents can volunteer. Support is going to be the only way we can be actually helpful. I don’t see how fighting is going to be helpful. — Chaghig Walker, Berkeley Unified parent\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As someone who serves two elementary schools, I’m in touch with families every single day, I know that the sentiments and the concerns about returning to in-person school are there. They’re real and they’re complex.” — Laura Rivas, Berkeley Unified parent and a family engagement specialist for the district\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just deeply distressing because it goes so far beyond the bounds of decency. And my fear is that it breaks a really important bond that we have with our teachers. We entrust them to teach our children, not just all of these subjects, but how to be good people and how to make friends and how to have a social consciousness … To bully them in this way is horrifying to me.” — Christine Staples, former Berkeley Unified parent and PTA leader\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Taking note of the outcry of parents and teachers, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens addressed the video in a message to the school community, condemning the video as an invasion of privacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing is served by treating members of our community, including our teachers … as the enemy,” he wrote. “We compromise our collective well-being if we don’t respect one another and treat each other with compassion. We have a path forward. It’s one we have to walk together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='school-reopening']The group behind the video declined to identify its members for fear of retaliation, prompting others to criticize their unwillingness to extend the same courtesy to Meyer and his young daughter. Though the 2-year-old’s image is blurred in the video, Meyer told KQED being followed and filmed frightened her and other children in the vicinity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11862469/after-leading-school-closures-berkeley-teachers-union-president-spotted-dropping-daughter-off-at-in-person-preschool\">he told KQED\u003c/a> one of the self-identified moms following his family “scared my kid and the others in the vicinity. It was super inappropriate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district and teachers union announced a tentative agreement in February, saying teachers should be vaccinated to pave the way for a hybrid system of in-person and remote learning that is set to begin rollout in this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the Guerilla Momz did not identify themselves, and their message comes in a broader movement that some parents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11858457/as-battle-over-reopening-san-francisco-schools-turns-ugly-equity-emerges-as-fault-line\">are concerned about coming overwhelmingly from affluent white voices\u003c/a>, parents and teachers worry the voices of Black, Latino and Asian families are being lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Various Bay Area school district surveys in San Francisco and the East Bay show those communities are less enthusiastic about returning to in-person learning than white families, to various degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Repulsive. Bullying. Disturbing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are the words Berkeley parents are using to describe an attack-style video posted over the weekend by a group calling itself “Guerilla Momz.” The video shows Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Matt Meyer dropping off his daughter at in-person preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín issued a statement about the video on Tuesday, calling to calm conflict and division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all have the same goal and want what is best for our children,” he wrote. “Stalking the President of the Berkeley Teachers Federation and his young child unnecessarily stokes divisions and creates polarization at a time when we need unity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Guerilla Momz group claimed hypocrisy on the part of a union leader who fought for teacher vaccinations for safety reasons before returning his teachers to classrooms, and for publicly questioning how well kids could adhere to masking requirements. The video soon went viral. Local outlets like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11862469/after-leading-school-closures-berkeley-teachers-union-president-spotted-dropping-daughter-off-at-in-person-preschool\">KQED\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Video-of-Berkeley-teachers-union-chief-taking-15990654.php\">the San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/03/01/video-berkeley-teachers-union-president-criticized-as-hypocrite-for-taking-kid-to-school/\">Mercury News\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/01/covid-group-calls-berkeley-teachers-union-leader-a-hypocrite-for-taking-child-to-private-preschool/\">KPIX\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/coronavirus/berkeley-teachers-union-leader-criticized-after-video-surfaces/2480330/\">NBC Bay Area covered it\u003c/a>, splashing the video across television sets around the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was also retweeted by Donald Trump Jr., and landed on the homepage of national outlets like \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-does-california-teachers-union-president-send-own-child-person-school-1572992\">Newsweek\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/california-teachers-union-head-slammed-for-taking-kid-to-school/\">New York Post\u003c/a>, Fox News and conservative websites like The Blaze and Breitbart, where it was derided by political conservatives. Soon, people across the nation furious over the pace of school reopenings set their sights on Berkeley, and its teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that fury took an emotional toll on some Berkeley teachers and parents. And some firmly disagreed with groups pushing for reopening schools that any “hypocrisy” had taken place at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/GuerillaMomz\">Guerilla Momz\u003c/a> seized specifically on one issue: a high-profile union official with the power over thousands of families’ futures who publicly argued teachers needed vaccines in order to safely mingle with children from varying households, and that schools could not be reopened until that criterion was met, but who then freely allowed his own child to mingle with other households and caregivers who may not necessarily have been vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, they argued his public statements did not meet his private life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Rather than attacking our teachers, community members should be advocating for more resources for them. What is at risk here is the community’s overall support of a healthy education system that serves all of our children.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But many in the community instead seized on the idea of a public school versus private, and argued there are no public preschools for children the age of Meyer’s toddler, rendering the argument a nonissue. They also saw a union leader working hard to represent the voices of his union members, and did not believe his role in deciding school reopenings met the threshold to publicly debate his private choices. They said he was a parent who, like many parents, faced few good choices about how to provide child care for a toddler while balancing work and community life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If folks want to do something, the productive thing is to create a community dialogue where you bring together different stakeholders and you do it in a constructive, positive way, not hiding behind anonymous Twitter names,” said Peter Ross, a Berkeley parent. “Instead, put your name out there and do something productive, bring folks together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents and teachers alike also critiqued the reopening schools groups for amplifying the voices of predominantly white, affluent parents who were crying out for “equity” in the name of marginalized students while ignoring the needs and desires of those communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED heard from many who were disheartened and felt their voices were lost in the outcry of more privileged parents who have been the most vocal for reopenings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have collected some of the testimonials, here:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My heart is heavy. My community is falling apart. My instinct is to run away and hide. I don’t like that.” — Sara Hougan, Berkeley Unified parent\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frankly revolting to attack teachers at this time, because every educator I know is working more hours with more stress to care for our children than they ever have before. Vilifying our teachers and their union is completely unproductive. Rather than attacking our teachers, community members should be advocating for more resources for them. What is at risk here is the community’s overall support of a healthy education system that serves all of our children well.” — Peter Ross, Berkeley Unified parent\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What exactly is the hypocrisy? …that some teachers have found private child care for their young children so that they can do their jobs while working tirelessly to figure out the incredibly complex issue surrounding school’s opening in person? Is the hypocrisy that there is a small, minority of parents who have used their privilege and power to create a public narrative which claims to speak for us all, but actually doesn’t?” — Allison Krasnow, Willard Middle School eighth grade math teacher, via her blog\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really upsetting as a parent to sort of see the narrative building of parents versus teachers, because I don’t actually think that’s a fair representation of where we truly are as a community. I’m a parent volunteer and so I do a lot of work on the PTA working closely with the principals to find out exactly how parents can volunteer. Support is going to be the only way we can be actually helpful. I don’t see how fighting is going to be helpful. — Chaghig Walker, Berkeley Unified parent\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As someone who serves two elementary schools, I’m in touch with families every single day, I know that the sentiments and the concerns about returning to in-person school are there. They’re real and they’re complex.” — Laura Rivas, Berkeley Unified parent and a family engagement specialist for the district\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just deeply distressing because it goes so far beyond the bounds of decency. And my fear is that it breaks a really important bond that we have with our teachers. We entrust them to teach our children, not just all of these subjects, but how to be good people and how to make friends and how to have a social consciousness … To bully them in this way is horrifying to me.” — Christine Staples, former Berkeley Unified parent and PTA leader\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Taking note of the outcry of parents and teachers, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens addressed the video in a message to the school community, condemning the video as an invasion of privacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing is served by treating members of our community, including our teachers … as the enemy,” he wrote. “We compromise our collective well-being if we don’t respect one another and treat each other with compassion. We have a path forward. It’s one we have to walk together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The group behind the video declined to identify its members for fear of retaliation, prompting others to criticize their unwillingness to extend the same courtesy to Meyer and his young daughter. Though the 2-year-old’s image is blurred in the video, Meyer told KQED being followed and filmed frightened her and other children in the vicinity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11862469/after-leading-school-closures-berkeley-teachers-union-president-spotted-dropping-daughter-off-at-in-person-preschool\">he told KQED\u003c/a> one of the self-identified moms following his family “scared my kid and the others in the vicinity. It was super inappropriate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district and teachers union announced a tentative agreement in February, saying teachers should be vaccinated to pave the way for a hybrid system of in-person and remote learning that is set to begin rollout in this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the Guerilla Momz did not identify themselves, and their message comes in a broader movement that some parents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11858457/as-battle-over-reopening-san-francisco-schools-turns-ugly-equity-emerges-as-fault-line\">are concerned about coming overwhelmingly from affluent white voices\u003c/a>, parents and teachers worry the voices of Black, Latino and Asian families are being lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Various Bay Area school district surveys in San Francisco and the East Bay show those communities are less enthusiastic about returning to in-person learning than white families, to various degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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},
"radiolab": {
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"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
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