Yesterday, superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice sent a message to all Westport Public School parents. He wrote:
My apologies for the late timing of my message below. I wanted to be certain that the school community heard directly from me before the weekend.
As many of you are aware, an article circulated Thursday with a Westport parent’s account of antisemitic bullying directed at their child.
This comes at a time when there is a frightening rise in antisemitic incidents in our country. I know this, and am deeply saddened that our Jewish community is understandably feeling so vulnerable.
Let me be clear: antisemitism is vile, and is never tolerated in our schools.
When we receive reports of antisemitism, including those described in the article, we always respond and take action to keep our students safe and issue appropriate consequences, including discipline.
While we do all we can to teach our students about the impact of their words and actions, incidents do occur. For more information about how we address these matters, please see my comments on the “06880” blog.
Today, I spoke with the director of the Connecticut ADL, as well as Rabbis Friedman (Temple Israel) and Wiederhorn (The Conservative Synagogue). They shared with me how members of the Jewish community are feeling, and we had a chance to talk about what we can do moving forward.
As one important step, I am looking forward to joining them in a community conversation next month. I also look forward to continuing these conversations with other members of our community.
We will continue to be vigilant in the face of antisemitism and all other forms of hate. Of course, there’s always more work to be done. We ask that you continue to share any concerns you have with members of our administrative team.
He still doesn’t say what has been done to punish the culprit of the antisemitism. We don’t need names, but we should be able to know what the consequences are and for those others thinking about doing things like this as a possible consequence they may need to endure to dissuade any others.
This community conversation is a very positive development. However, Mr Scarice still owes the Goldberg family a “public” apology for the undesirable outcome.
Has there been an announced date for the “community conversation”?
I came here to repeat EXACTLY what Beth said above. There should be due process for an accused child and their identity should not be revealed but if the investigation of the incident showed the accusations to be accurate, I want to know what action was taken by the school. It’s a systemic problem but that doesn’t mean individual consequences can be completely avoided. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the child and the family who felt they were victimized ended up feeling shamed and not supported. They left the school system. That means that there was a major systemic failing. It’s good to be proactive but sometimes you need to go back and figure out what mistakes you made in the past so that you don’t repeat them.
There are often two sides to every story. I do not know the other side. But privacy laws constrain administrators from saying almost anything about their investigation.
Scarice’s statement claims “antisemitism..is never tolerated in our schools,” yet it seems like every time the issue comes up in practice, it IS tolerated.
1) The swastikas found at Staples in Sept 2019. Has anyone heard a follow up from that story?
2) There was the ISIS-like mock beheading video made by a Staples student shared shortly before the Oct 7th attacks which was re-circulated after 10/7 as well. The rationale for not punishing that student was the video was made off-school grounds and was outside its lane.
3) Now we have a student making “Camp Auschwitz showers” jokes, INSIDE CMS’s lunchroom. But this is entirely tolerated as well. Here the Jewish student is asked to leave. There is a claim made by one of the Board of Ed members that their is a “complete picture.” I would absolutely like to hear what made the “Camp Auschwitz showers” joke so funny that made it excusable.
I understand wanting to make each specific case a teachable moment, but I’m not sure the right lessons are getting passed along here.
While WPS can’t control what children say, nor should they, they do control consequences of these actions. These consequences range from nothing up to suspension or even expulsion. In this email Scarice has the chutzpah to say he is saddened to see Westport’s Jewish community so vulnerable but fails to accept any responsibility for contributing to it by issuing zero consequences to each successive behavior contributing to it.
And what I want to know is if the story is true that our school silenced the family by only offering the money to attend the private school if they signed a contract that they wouldn’t tell the story of what happened to their child? That’s also very disturbing!
Call me old fashion, and I know things have changed from when I was in school or my son was at Staples but I believe the solution is easy. Investigate and identify the individual(s) who said these alleged things. If there is sufficient proof then these students should be at a minimum suspended or expelled. Their names and the punishment should be made public. Other students will get the message. Bullying and making anyone feel bad about who they are or what religion they are has to be unacceptable. Too much talk and not enough action.
Peter, there are VERY strict rules about student privacy these days. Administrators are unable to say anything publicly — or even privately.
Dan. I get it but I think that is unfortunate. Think if those who stormed the Capital on 1/6 had all gone unpunished or if their punishment was kept secret because they might feel bad. When you were coaching and a student did something, you didn’t ignore it for fear of hurting his feelings. Maybe I was wrong but when I was coaching at
Staples, I would call out a player so the whole team knew what was expected of them.
I agree, Peter. There are different laws, however, regarding minors. Any minors who stormed the Capitol would be dealt with different. And the laws regarding educational privacy are particularly strict.
As for coaching: Back in the day, it was much easier to call out a player in front of everyone. These days, there is much more pushback from the player being punished, and (sometimes) his or her parents. Threats of lawsuits abound. It is a very different landscape.
I could go on and on with specific examples — except I can’t.
In her recent talk on “toxic achievement culture,” Jennifer Wallace noted that in the past, when a teacher (or coach) (or court, for that matter) disciplined a child, parents would say to the kid, “Well, you shouldn’t have done it.” Now, more and more, they come after the teacher (or coach) (or other disciplinarian), for singling out their child. Or for ruining his or her chances for college or success in the future. Or whatever.
there are bad influencers all over the country. Social media. parents. News media. Political leaders. Hatred is all around us. 06880 is not insulated from these hateful offenders. The USA is in sad shape. The world is sick. is there a solution ? I hope so. I have serious doubts
I thought the story was about hush money, not specifically bullying? As a tax payer my interest is more in the district, and the elected officials who run it, using my money to buy children’s’ silence after being victimized. A community conversation is also welcome, but I’m not sure that was the key insight in the Newsweek article.
Superintendent Scarice’s comments are insulting to the Jewish community and particularly to our kids at Staples. How many times have we heard this kind of meaningless apology -all the right words, but no discernible action – from university presidents, those in Congress, the media – need I go on?? They’re all reading from the same script in the hope that it will pacify the Jewish community. A lesson for the head of our schools to learn: your talking points don’t work when the stakes are so high.
Words matter, Mr. Scarice. Spell out the specific actions you are taking to protect our Jewish students from horrific, antisemitic bullying.
give him your concrete ideas As a Jew who has faced anti semitism as a child and adult I would love to see solutions to stop it. Antisemitism has persisted throughout history. I am a strong supporter of the ADL. When the loudest megaphone USA leaders invite anti semite Kanye West to the White House and to Mar largo and Jews and rabbis stay quiet on it what can you expect? When Trump said in Charlottesville there is good and bad on both sides and Jews and Rabbis give Trump a pass on it what can we expect ? And yes college presidents are called out. Omar and jayapal are called out. But who called out Trump on Kanye and on Charlottesville? Ivanka ? Jared Kushner ? Some things aspects of anti semitic behavior go unchallenged. This type of rhetoric is ingrained into American life as acceptable. that’s part of the problem
It seems that everyone has an opinion or a story or a theory when antisemitism rears its ugly head- Why, Who, What was done about it! But in our minds and memories we are all just saying- Please- Never Again!!
The problem here is we may never know the whole story as much as we all would love to know the details. We hear about shwastika’s or racist graffiti in neighboring towns. In this case was Newsweek able to get the whole story or just one side.
So far Superintendent Scarice has been seen to be a good guy on every issue that has come up in the past. He can’t control what each and every student will do or say- he can set policy and education on racism, antisemitism, diversity- the same responsibility that parents have for their kids actions. And parents and Mr Scarice hopefully will deal with whatever happens appropriately!
I will wait with bated or baited breath to see how this sad situation gets resolved when more facts are available.
But there can’t be good people on both sides of this issue ever.
For most of us in 06880- I think I can say antisemitism is not condoned, accepted or overlooked.
that’s exactly my point.When the president of the USA engages in anti semitic behavior its affect on the country is unlike any other person. We can control who our president is. If our citizens including rabbis. fellow Jews neighbors and the unknown permit a person who has known blatant antiseptic acts in their history then we are screwed.
regarding my comments yesterday Trump gave an immigration speech at a rally. Trump repeated Hitler words. Trump said immigrants poison the blood of our country. We can’t control what children say. we can’t control what parents say. We can control who becomes president of the USA. You want to stop anti semitic behavior.? Start by rejecting a Trump. He is a parrot of Hitler
Being a parent is hard, but it doesn’t get much easier than ensuring your children aren’t tormenting other children with Racist and/or Anti-Semetic remarks. Its really a low bar. One that some parents in this town clearly cannot meet.
It is basic human decency that if your child is mean to another and you find out about it, you simply reach out and apologize or have your child do the same.
I look forward to this community conversation with Mr. Scarice and our Jewish Community. It will not be a “one and done” placating conversation either. The Jewish Community of Westport is not going to let this issue go. We will not stop until there are policies in place and we feel our children’s safety and well being matters. Look how our town came out to ensure sane candidates got elected to our School Board. We will move the needle on this as well.
I, personally, have whiplash as to the incomprehensible responses to current anti-semitism in our country…but I always felt great pride in being apart of Westport’s tolerant and accepting community of plural ideas. We need to all continue to be a beacon of hope in an insane world…Stand up for one another…don’t let a bias remark go by. Honestly, we, the Jewish community are freaking out! We grew up learning about the Holocaust, not in a classroom as much as in our living rooms! So many survivors (as in my family) have stories of their German Jewish relatives who said, “…it will never happen here” meaning in Germany. Now I understand it. I NEVER thought it could happen here, but look what’s happening? We all, each and every Westporter has to speak out against this climate of the ugliest hate imaginable, and right now. And it starts in our schools. I don’t want these kids to be punished (and I do) as much as I want them to be taught about the Holocaust and the small steps which lead up to it. One friend of my mother’s is a Holocaust survivor (who hid in an underground bunker from about age 4 to 7) and whose father was murdered by the Nazis. I sat in her kitchen with her and her husband just after Oct. 7th. They looked at my husband and I and said “this feels like 1938 in Germany.” Think about the weight of that statement. It should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. So Westport, don’t follow the meek and cowardly words of our Ivy Leagues. Instead, lead! Make an example of these Jew-hate acts in our schools with consequences but also re-educate.
So many caring and intelligent responses and I, of course, am in complete agreement! What I would add to the discussion is that it’s not only our Jewish Community that’s concerned about the horrific rise in anti-semitism, as well as the most recent incident in Westport that’s already garnered national attention. It might be helpful if Superintendent Scarice, the media, politicians and so many others did not just speak about the Jewish community feeling vulnerable – as if others didn’t share these concerns!
When it comes to situations happening between our children, its a very complex thing to decipher. These kids, thanks to a lot of technology and social media that we didn’t have, speak to each other in shocking ways sometimes. There is nothing acceptable about jokes about Auschwitz and whenever a child is taunting a friend and that friend asks them to stop , they need to listen. However, our schools are not responsible for all that our children do and say. A lot doesn’t even happen at school. We are all in this together. And that’s what I heard Tom Scarice say in the BoE meeting last week. Of course we are all on edge about the very real rising antisemitism in this country and as a worried Jewish parent I thought what could the school have done differently? Perhaps call an all school assembly and remind these kids, who have likely already learned about this, what the Holocaust was and why we don’t joke about it and why we don’t taunt our friends of any race, religion and gender. BUT, I think we all really have to remember we don’t know everyone’s side of the story. I was shocked to hear the school tried to buy their silence! But then understood the parents brought in a lawyer to seek a settlement to pay for some of the private education and confidentiality is usually a part of a settlement. To be clear, I’m not judging the parents. I don’t know what really happened here and likely none of the people commenting do. But as a community we should focus on what we can all do – educate our children, teach them compassion, make concrete suggestions to the schools and the administration rather than expecting them to solve something that the rest of the world can not. I do not think the focus should be on the “hush money” aspect, which I’m sure is complex as well as shocking and sensational. Let’s focus on the very real and concrete issues of teaching, parenting, educating, hatred and bigotry of all kinds.
It starts at home, all of this. Children get this from their parents and then act it out, knowing it’s unacceptable.
I do know other incidents in the district, but they are handled swiftly, quietly and there is quick action by the administrators.
Do not expect a public announcement or even the families name, these are children.
There is obviously something going on at home, and will be dealt with privately.