14 | MARCH 7 • 2024 

who is also the Black Student 
Union adviser. 
Posts Harris has made on 
X reveal that he believes U.S. 
defensive and military aid and 
support for Israel is “disgust-
ing.
” Harris mocked a video of 
Jewish women college students 
at an undisclosed campus cry-
ing to administrators about a 
pro-Palestine protest in the days 
following Oct. 7. He reposted 
tweets describing Gaza as an 
open-air prison where people 
are bombed and starved and 
criticized a Super Bowl ad 
about antisemitism, describing 
it as Israeli propaganda meant 
to “draw the public’s attention 
away from the genocide in 
Raffa” on the evening when IDF 
forces extracted two male hos-
tages from the area. 
 
PARENTS RESPOND 
A Jewish parent, who wished 
not to be identified for fear of 
academic and social ramifica-
tions, said they are not confi-
dent about sending their chil-
dren back to school for some 
time. They are not confident 
that the school administration 
can repair the situation that has 
been brewing within the halls 
of the middle and upper school 
campus. 
Regarding the posters, the 
parent said the administration 
took them down soon after they 
went up. In communications 
to the school community, the 
administration then unveiled 
new policies on what types of 
posters are permissible, and 
any posters should include the 
names of student organizers 
and could only be posted in 
approved designated areas in 
the building. 
“It was at that point that the 
student body went berserk,
” said 
the parent. “The president of 
the Black Student Union stood 
up and claimed that the admin-

istration was infringing on the 
student’s First Amendment 
rights and that they would 
not be silenced. They just 
kept replacing posters that the 
administration removed. My 
child said students were stream-
ing into the hallway taking on 
a mob mentality of the many 
versus the few. When they 
left school (before mid-winter 
recess), they left that day very 
upset, and they are not sure 
they want to return to school.
” 
A parent who gave the 
pseudonym Lauren to hide 
her identity said, “I don’t think 
the administration under-
stands why we see what is on 
those posters to be hurtful and 
biased,
” Lauren said. “Which is 
why Jewish parents were ask-
ing for more education (about 
antisemitism and anti-Israel 

bias) from the beginning. If you 
are part of a community, you 
are all not going to agree on 
everything. But you can have 
conversations about why some-
thing, like words on a poster, 
can be hurtful to you. If we were 
having engaging, facilitated con-
versations all along, something 
like a poster would be discussed 
civilly and taken down or would 
have never been put up.
” 
 Lauren said she did not blame 
the children who want to be 
strong advocates for social jus-
tice. “But you can’t expect them 
to understand the complex his-
tory of the Middle East or the 
politics at play without teaching 
them,
” she said. “They need to 
know that they are targets of 
a very well-constructed social 
media campaign. They need 
to learn how to [distinguish]

between misinformation and 
propaganda from facts. I know 
Roeper students can have the 
hard conversations, they just 
need to be given the guidance 
and the chance.
”

YOUNGER STUDENTS 
FEEL SUPPORTED
If anything positive came 
from the Oct. 7 attacks, it has 
brought Jewish families at 
Roeper closer together as they 
sought each other 
out online and in 
person to prepare 
for any potential 
antisemitism that 
may come their 
way. Parents with 
children in the 
lower grades, including Allison 
Gutman, say they feel their 
children are supported and have 

OUR COMMUNITY

Allison 
Gutman

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