MARCH 23 • 2023 | 25

a complete understanding that Arraf should 
have never been allowed to speak and had no 
place as an invited guest to the school.”
Gamer said part of the problem was that 
administrators and school faculty do not 
understand the nuances between criticizing 
Israel and slipping into anti-Zionism as an 
expression of antisemitism. 
“There were 25 of us all in a room that 
included administrators and school board 
members,” Gamer said. “
Across the board, 
they all said they had learned things they had 
no knowledge of before. They will continue to 
learn with us, the ADL and the JCRC to con-
tinue to understand the difference between 
valid criticism of Israel and when that lan-
guage slips into denying the existence of the 
state of Israel — and how and why that is very 
hurtful and offensive to Jewish people. For 
this, I am hopeful.”
However, parents and students are sensing 
that things will be hard to heal. 
Parent Robyn Michelle, whose son is a 
student at the school, had a conversation with 
Principal Stroughter where he listened to her 
concerns and, as an educational administra-
tion professional herself, she offered to assist 
in the healing process. 
“Though Stroughter said moving forward 
that faculty will work with Jewish and Muslim 
student leadership groups, students are not 
yet at a point where they can come together 
to talk,” she said.
“My son feels like school has become an 
ethnic/culture war zone. But Stroughter did 
agree that things are a bit out of sorts, and 
they are working hard to support students 
and faculty also plan to teach staff to recog-
nize all forms of antisemitism.” 

SECOND APOLOGY
The school administration issued a strongly 
worded second statement to district families 
on March 16.
 Superintendent Pat Watson stated in the first 
sentence that the district made a mistake and 
expressed a sincere apology “for the harm that 
was caused by allowing a conversation that was 
not appropriate in a school setting.
” 
“We own what went wrong and will improve 
our practices,
” the statement read. 
It did not mention Arraf by name, but said 
she deviated from the prompts and “discussed 
specific incidents, political in nature, which 
were outside of the parameters of the assembly 
and not their own lived experience.
” 
The statement continued: “In a school of 
‘No Place for Hate,
’ antisemitic rhetoric was 
shared with our students, and we recognize 
its devastating impact. For this, we are very 
sorry.
” (No Place for Hate® is a student-led 
Anti-Defamation League national program 
introduced at BHHS last September.)
“We also recognize that in the aftermath, 
many others were hurt as well. We apologize 
for failing to guide our student organizers 
properly. We regret that we allowed the speak-
er to continue their presentation.
” 
The statement acknowledged that Arraf 
spoke about a “very tumultuous and com-
plex situation, the conflict in the Middle East 
involving Palestinians and Israelis. A situation 
of this complexity with various sides, perspec-
tives, hundreds of years of suffering, war, and 
tragedy is not one well-suited to be presented 
at a diversity assembly and should have been 
eliminated as a potential topic for discussion. 
As the adults responsible for the safety, 
success, and well-being of our entire student 

body, we have failed in demonstrating how to 
highlight diversity in a positive way and how 
to address sensitive topics appropriately.
”
Watson stated that going forward, school-
wide mandatory assemblies and other stu-
dent-led programming will be “supervised by 
adults with intention and purpose and will 
more thoroughly vet invited guests who will 
speak to the school community.
” 
He stated that the district, working with rep-
resentatives from the Jewish community, has 
identified “significant areas for improvement, 
and we acknowledge we need to do better.
”

STUDENTS EXPRESS DISMAY
In the days following the diversity day pro-
gram, Jewish students at BHHS reported an 
increasingly hostile environment as students 
asked each other whose side they were on. 
And a student-generated Instagram post 
invited other students to wear the colors of the 
Palestinian flag on March 17 to show support 
for the school’s Palestinian and Arab students, 
while Jewish parents debated whether or not to 
send their teens to school. 
One Jewish student, who wants to remain 
anonymous, said she attended the second 
assembly and was quickly alarmed when Arraf 
began her presentation that swiftly turned to 
claims that Israelis were murdering Palestinian 
children in the Gaza Strip. 
Deeply offended, she turned to her friend, 
who is Egyptian American, to express her 
alarm. But her friend did not understand why 
she was so upset because he was unfamiliar 
with the history of the conflict. 
“She started speaking about the conflicts in 
Gaza and was saying that Israelis are murder-
ers. And as soon as I heard that, I was shocked 
and deeply offended. I just tuned out the rest 
of what she had to say, left the presentation 
and texted my parents,
” she said. 
The student, who last December traveled 
to Israel on a mission with Temple Israel, 
said Arraf’s statements were completely 
inappropriate to share with the entire school. 
She said she sent a lengthy letter to BHHS 
Principal Lawrence Stroughter, describing her 
“life-changing” experiences in Israel and ques-
tioning why the school would invite such a 
hateful person into a school with a large Jewish 
population to deliver what was “basically an 
antisemitic hate speech.
” 
“I also reminded him that, on a daily basis, 
he tells us that our school is no place for hate 
and that if you see something you must say 
something. If this is so, why was this woman 

SHARI COHEN

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