130-plus called for teacher’s suspension over pro-Palestine post. What did schools decide?
The Palm Beach County elementary teacher asked school district leaders to ‘publicly recognize the Palestinian community’ in their communications about the Israel-Hamas war.
The Palm Beach Post | By Katherine Kokal | March 7, 2024
A Palm Beach County elementary school teacher will not be disciplined after she sent a letter to School Board officials asking them to “publicly recognize the Palestinian community” in their communications about the Israel-Hamas war and posted a photo that featured the slogan “from the river to the sea” on her personal Facebook page.
The teacher was given a written directive by her principal to “be mindful of how the public may see and/or misconstrue your message if you post it on a public-facing forum.” The photo she reposted to her page included the pro-Palestinian slogan that Israel’s supporters say is antisemitic and a call to destroy the state of Israel.
School district investigators found that the teacher had “no apparent intent to spread any hateful rhetoric,” by posting the photo, and that her classroom instruction to her students was not affected by it. They interviewed 13 students in the teacher’s fourth- and fifth-grade classes and 12 of her colleagues in their investigation.
District investigative documents showed Jack Furnari, a former Boca Raton conservative political consultant who wrote the post for Florida Jolt and runs the website, was among those who originally launched complaints against the teacher with the school district.
The intensity rose on Nov. 15 when state Rep. Mike Caruso, a Republican from Delray Beach, called for the teacher’s suspension at a November school board meeting, where Caruso said her letter and social media posts amounted to “disgusting antisemitic genocidal rhetoric.”
Caruso’s wife, Tracy, edits and helps run Florida Jolt with Furnari.
Also in November, the school district received 133 petitions stating that the teacher believed in “the extermination of the Jewish people” and expressed concerns that she was spreading her beliefs in the classroom. The petitions were organized by the Gross Family Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Holocaust.
On Nov. 16, the teacher was placed on paid leave at home.
Meanwhile, constitutional lawyers and free-speech experts said her note to school district officials represented an “open-and-shut” case of protected speech because she was weighing in on a public matter and doing so outside her classroom.
“Whether you agree with those who raise concerns about Palestinian rights or disagree with them does not matter as far as the First Amendment is concerned,” said Jim Green, a West Palm Beach attorney and former state leader of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Everyone is entitled to speak freely about matters of public concern.”
Students, colleagues interviewed in investigation into teacher who wrote letter about Palestinians
In its investigation of the elementary school teacher, school district staff members tried to figure out whether she posted the “from the river to the sea” slogan and whether she was sharing her political beliefs in class.
To do this, they randomly selected four students from each of her three classes to interview.
The students, who were between 9 and 11 years old, unanimously told investigators that their teacher did not discuss Israel, Hamas, Jewish people, current events or other countries in her class. Many reported that she had the American and Florida flags hung in her classroom, and others added that she’d never worn clothing supporting Palestinian people.
In one student’s written statement, they said their reading teacher “always talks about the book” and “never gets of (sic) topic.”
“I never heard her talk about Israel or Palestine but I don’t know what that is,” the student wrote.
Palestine supporters from across south Florida gather in downtown WPB for rally THOMAS CORDY/THE PALM BEACH POS
Teachers and colleagues at the elementary school also said they’d never discussed conflicts in the Middle East with the teacher. All 12 said they had varying levels of contact with the teacher outside of school and on social media but that they had never heard her mention the Israel-Hamas war.
The teacher, who The Post is not naming because she was not disciplined by the school district, also spoke to investigators about her social-media post and her letter.
She said she considered the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as a call “for the liberation of people being oppressed,” and that she did not intend to be antisemitic or to incite or promote violence.
Read the teacher’s Nov. 1 letter
Good Afternoon Superintendent Burke and School Board Members,
I am an employee of Palm Beach School District and I am writing to you in regard to the ongoing devastation in the Middle East.
Mr. Burke, in your last email regarding the topic on October 10th, you reminded our District that “we stress the values of respect, tolerance, and inclusivity” and encouraged parents to engage in conversations with their children about the importance of respect, empathy, and the harmful consequences of prejudice. For this, I commend you.
However, the atrocities in Palestine, specifically Gaza have not stopped. Today marks the 25th day of constant bombardment on innocent Palestinian civilians with a death toll at over 8,000, of which 3,500 are children.
As an educator of our community’s children, I implore you to uphold the stress on the “values of respect, tolerance, and inclusivity” for the Palestinians in our community during this devastating time. Parents can only effectively engage in conversations with their children about the importance of respect, empathy, and the harmful consequences of prejudice if they understand that the Palestinian people in Gaza are being violently and indiscriminately massacred.
On October 14, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six year-old boy, was stabbed 26 times at his home in Chicago by his family’s landlord as a result of hate crime due to the family being Muslim and Palestinian. Our community must be properly informed about the devastation happening to Palestinians to avoid such hate and evil.
In addition, I would like to make something very clear: The American voices speaking up for the freedom of Palestine and calling for a ceasefire, including countless Jewish voices, are voices for humanity. This is not a matter of religion, skin color, or race. This is a matter of humanity. We as humans are standing up for human rights.
Every morning for the last 25 days, I am waking up to first-hand accounts online of Palestinian civilians being killed. Palestinian parents crying out because their children were killed and dismembered by the bombing. Palestinian children crying out because their parents were killed. Doctors treating patients on the floor of hospitals with no anesthesia and no electricity, just the flashlight from a phone. I, amongst many Americans, Arab and non-Arab, mourn these losses and feel helpless and in awe at what we are witnessing.
So again, I am pleading with you to please publicly recognize the Palestinian community by speaking up for humanity and encourage our community to show understanding and empathy to the Palestinian people.
