Every now and then, I feel compelled to share some insights as part of the Friday notes that go beyond the happenings of our school. I apologize in advance for the somewhat editorial approach I am taking with this message, and I understand if that means that many people will stop reading right here. (I also am well aware that some people hardly read updates at all). After ten years of working in this community, I have had many opportunities to communicate, some positive, some negative, some somewhere in between. And as I sat at the computer at the tail end of a 12 hour workday - on Thursday’s snow day - I really felt like at least part of this week’s message should be a bit more personal.

 

Earlier this week, I shared that we had a swastika appear on a bathroom wall, which was in the Worcester Telegram today. This symbol of hatred and anti-Semitism  has made its way into the American narrative all too frequently and with almost endorsement from some who seem to forget that the United States fought (and won) a war against Nazism. From marches around the country where people display Nazi armbands, to people who feel justified in wearing “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirts, the apologist narrative toward Nazism is frightening. Since the attack on Israel on October 7, I can share that there are many Jewish people who have felt isolated and attacked, particularly from those who equate American Jewry to the acts of the Israeli military. (To be clear: I have expressed, personally and consistently, my feelings of sadness about both the massacre of October 7 and the ensuing loss of life in Gaza).

 

Some may know that I spent the better part of the fall dealing with the aftermath of a technology conference in which a keynote panelist shared a number of anti-Semitic tropes, including, “we have been teaching only one side of the Holocaust for too long.” That led to significant responses in the Massachusetts Education community, as I shared that there is no place for any group to ever feel marginalized by guest speakers or panelists who subsequently endorse or cannot find it in their conscience to refute hate speech. Last week, I attended a panel discussion facilitated by the Anti-Defamation League and which featured a United States Attorney and the Massachusetts Attorney General, Andrea Campbell. They provided insight and perspectives on the rising number of hate crimes, not only those that are anti-Semitic, across the Commonwealth, and that in many places, students who are Jewish feel compelled to hide their identity out of fear. I learned that our investigative processes are top notch, that some schools face incidents far greater in number and seriousness than we do at UHS, and that we have, despite our challenges, much to be proud of.

 

The appearance of a swastika in a bathroom at Uxbridge High School does not mean that Uxbridge is an anti-Semitic community, nor does it mean that there are students in our building who are actively supporting Nazi causes. Sadly, after hours of looking through video patterns of the building, and not knowing exactly when the epithet was drawn, we may never know how long it was present or who put it there, any more that we can identify anything else that happens in the bathroom stall during the course of the day. We may have cameras, but it is really hard to determine with foot traffic of dozens per day going into a bathroom, and no way to monitor what happens when a stall door closed, it’s not that simple to identify, especially when the handwriting or drawing itself is essentially nondescript.

 

In a school of 600 students, all of whom possess free will, we have no way to control what they watch or the type of social media in which they engage when they are not on our watch. We also have organizations and the public in and out of the building almost nightly. Of these many people, there are no doubt those with vile, racist, and bigoted predispositions. But I don’t necessarily think that this swastika, found in a girls restroom, has any connection to a swastika on a desk in a classroom found in December of 2023, any more than a racial slur said to a student in 2017 has any connection to the behavior of a student doing something similar in 2024, other than being a reminder that these things are here. Being a microcosm of society, we have these behaviors, and we have a responsibility to educate and remediate when these things happen, even if there is no clear answer. One person writing that on a wall either has no idea what it means and is being sophomoric and inappropriate - or that one person writing on that wall is doing so out of hate. And not learning the identity, unless the person comes forward, is a difficult reconciliation. This is not a downplay. It’s an empirical reality and indicative of the times.

 

It also, however, underscores our fundamental purpose as a school. We do have complex conversations with students and staff, try to impress concepts of empathy, and lean on academic classes to provide context for history, the story of oppressed people, and how historical actions shape the world around us, both in past and present. This is not what some people refer to as a “DEI initiative” or “Critical Race Theory.” This is, simply put, education. 

 

In that same vein, last week I also had the opportunity and privilege to meet with Jim Beauchamp and Mike Potaski of the Uxbridge Historical Society. They gifted UHS a framed artifact with the names of slaves who were “property” in Uxbridge in colonial times, and we have students who will partner with our Historical Society on some projects that capture our town’s history, including slaves who fought in the Revolution. The conversation we shared was apolitical, rich, and sincere - it simply recognizes that there is a complex history where things that we now hold are wrong need to be remembered and documented. In fact, learning this week that Quaker Highway, on which UHS was built, was part of the Underground Railroad was fascinating in and of itself. The information about Uxbridge’s rich history, which includes slave owners, does not imply that Uxbridge is in and of itself a “racist” place - far from it. It is about confronting truth to understand it, and using that truth to make things better and to learn from the past. I am grateful for people like Mr. Beauchamp and Mr. Potaski who not only dedicate their volunteerism to our history but also want to share their expertise with our students.

 

I offer these perspectives because the barrage of news, the reaction of some individuals in our community to the appearance of a swastika and what it represents, the neverending alerts that pop up on screens, the litany of orders that have come from Washington, and the fears and angst that some people face are very much part of our reality. And, yes, some of this does hit closer to home. Some examples: We have a field hockey team that has won four consecutive state titles, and, along the way, has faced teams that have male players, which was in the headlines this week. We had a Holocaust survivor speak to our entire school, albeit virtually last month, to help color the reality that is the texts our students read, like Night. We have students in our building who came from other countries or who were born here to people who came from other countries (myself included), and we get reports of schools not far from us where 40-50% of students are afraid to come to school, for fear that they will be arrested by ICE agents. And, yes, we have Jewish students, staff, and families who wonder if a swastika is a sign that there are students in the building, their peers, who wish them dead - which is at the core of what Nazi ideology meant. (A deeper dive would also reveal that the Nazis also persecuted homosexuals, the mentally disabled, Magyar Gypsy populations, Catholics, those of African descent, and socialists, among others). 

 

I know that, by and large, the vast majority of the people in our community are kind, benevolent, and compassionate. I realize that we live in a society where disagreement often leads to villainization, where it is all but impossible to engage in civil discourse without the conversation leading to insult - or worse. I acknowledge that sometimes our community struggles to model this, with the vitriol and vehemence that extends to the pages of social media, the floors of town politics, the side conversations on athletic fields, and, yes, perhaps even the dinner table. 

 

And so, my humble request is that we do better. As we look ahead to the coming weeks, that our families and students look out for each other. That we put aside blind rhetoric, that we follow truth, good, and justice and speak up when something is wrong, when racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry, or any other “ism” that pits us against each other rears its ugly head. That we focus on working together in our schools, in our politics, in our work. That our students say something if they see something, and that they call out rhetoric that reveals hatred toward another group - no matter who or what that may be. Our students are our best eyes and ears, but oftentimes they succumb to saying nothing lest they be branded a “snitch.”

 

My congregation’s former rabbi had a quote as his email signature that is among the most famous in Jewish philosophy. It read, “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.” While we may not ever finish the work of confronting hatred, we cannot neglect it, we cannot ignore it, and we certainly cannot pretend it doesn’t exist - not any more than we cannot stop teaching our students to read, to solve problems, to be better citizens. In that spirit, we at UHS appreciate your support in that noble work. We truly are in this together- for better, for worse, and for everything in between.