MARCH 7 • 2024 | 15

been comforted. 
Gutman works for the Jewish 
Federation of Detroit as senior 
Israel and overseas program-
ming associate. She said she 
worked to correct messaging 
coming out of school commu-
nications that acknowledged 
the attack. Gutman made sure 
communications from Roeper 
said that Israel is not fighting 
Palestine but Hamas, and that 
Hamas is a terrorist organiza-
tion. 
Gutman said that the experi-
ence for elementary school kids 
and the war is very different to 
that of middle and high school 
students who have far more 
exposure to social media. 
“My son knows about the 
attacks and is sad about the hos-
tages, and he knows his mom 
makes visits to Israel every few 
months,
” Gutman said. “He also 
knows he can express this to his 
teachers and the school social 
workers who have been fantas-
tic and compassionate.
” 
Gutman said the posters 
were put up without the school 
administration’s permission, 
and that the administration 
was told by Jewish families that 
any formation of a chapter of 
Students for Justice in Palestine 
or Jewish Voice for Peace would 
be “unacceptable.
” The jury is 
still out on whether Shinshinim 
delegates will visit the school, 
she added. 
“Following the posters, a 
group of Jewish parents, includ-
ing myself, have made it very 
clear to the (school headmaster) 
that the messaging about the 
war needs to be the way we 
want it to be or at least neutral,
” 
Gutman said. “But from the 
elementary school side, the 
school faculty, administration 
and social workers have been 
beyond supportive. They know 
our family has close personal 
ties to Israel and Israelis.
” 

ROEPER STATEMENT
On Feb. 27, the JN received this 
statement from Roeper:
“
At the Roeper School, we are 
deeply committed to fostering 
an inclusive and respectful 
learning environment where all 
students feel seen, valued and 
supported. 
“Early in February, a number 
of students from a range of 
backgrounds created posters 
that showed different student 
perspectives on the Israel-
Hamas war. 
“Some were directly critical of 
the government of Israel, some 
called for a ceasefire and some 
encouraged students to contact 
their elected representatives,
” 
read the statement. 
“Some of these posters neg-
atively impacted members of 
our community. None of these 
posters were approved by any 
school employee, and all were 
immediately removed by school 
leadership. While we do not 
seek to silence students, we also 
understand how challenging it 
is to utilize posters as a means 
for fostering respectful and con-
structive dialogue.
” 
 Regarding the conduct of 
Harris, the statement said that 
leadership has recently “engaged 
with faculty and students to 
develop new guidelines that 
would ensure that students 
could be both heard and safe 
within the school. There is no 
room at our school for antisem-
itism, Islamophobia or any form 
of hate speech. 
“Certain social media posts 
by a school employee were only 
brought to the school’s attention 
at the end of last week during 
the school’s winter break. The 
school takes concerns about 
these posts very seriously. As we 
are taking steps to address this, 
we cannot provide additional 
details on this confidential 
personnel matter.
” 

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