Oakland Post: Week of December 13 – 19, 2023
By Magaly Muñoz, Post Staff
Teachers throughout the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) participated in a “teach-in” on Wednesday, where they informed students about the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, despite efforts by the district to shut it down.
In a YouTube video that was circulated within the district titled “Why YOU Should Participate in the December 6th Teach-In,” Jacob Fowler, a teacher at Lincoln Elementary School encouraged teachers to use a curriculum favoring the Palestinians when discussing the conflict with their students.
Tension across the Bay Area has heightened over the escalating conflict overseas that started with an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 in Southern Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis, and provoked a response that has led to more than 16,000 Palestinian fatalities so far, nearly half of whom are children.
OUSD Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell issued a statement Monday morning saying that the teach-in curriculum was “unsanctioned” and did not align with district guidelines.
“I want to make clear that the District does not authorize this action,” Johnson-Trammell said in her statement.
She explained that while the aim is to equip students to engage with local and global issues, educators must keep to principles of education and “keep their personal beliefs out of the classroom.”
Lesson plans for the day included educational materials suitable for grades K-12. These resources were assembled by ad-hoc members of the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the teacher’s union, specifically on the topic of Palestine. The materials included a variety of resources such as picture books, case studies and PBS videos.
On Wednesday morning, OEA for Palestine members issued a statement calling out the superintendent and the district for trying to intimidate teachers from participating in the teach-in.
“By attempting to chill academic freedom on this topic, OUSD is clearly taking a side in the war on Gaza,” said the statement.
The group also hosted a Zoom meeting on Wednesday titled “From Gaza to Oakland.” The meeting featured a panel consisting of representatives from the Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voices for Peace, and the Black Alliance for Peace.
During the meeting, speakers were asked questions about how students can become more involved in the Palestinian movement and how this issue affects people in Oakland.
A teacher with OUSD who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said OEA was expecting about 75-100 teachers across the district to participate in the teach-in.
She explained that her third-grade students responded really well to the curriculum and posed thoughtful questions about the conflict. Her school principal was on board with the teachers who opted to use these lessons as a conversation starter for discussions with students. She expressed confidence that parents would be receptive to this approach.
“I’m not hiding anything from parents, and I truly believe that they will be grateful that we’re having these conversations and we’re doing it in a way with safety and respect,” the source said.
While she has received positive responses from her school and students, the teacher expressed concern about her job, citing a quote that OUSD Board President Mike Hutchinson gave to the East Bay Times about teachers potentially losing their jobs as a consequence of participating in the teach-in.
Hutchinson did not respond to multiple attempts by the Post for a comment.
Parents and community members did express concern over the curriculum that was presented to students about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Stephisha Ycoy-Walton, a mom to an OUSD student, shared that she wished the discussions about the war did not disrupt students’ education. She understands that students may be curious about the issue but emphasized that the district needs to care more about what’s happening in the classroom, rather than what’s happening on the other side of the world.
She expressed that she would have appreciated OEA members reaching out to parents to get their view on what was going to be taught to students, especially given that it was against what the district would typically allow.
“We have to be very careful in how we allow children to grow and to formulate their thoughts and opinions because what we do know is that our children are a total makeup of all of their influences, their environment, what they soak in, by what they hear, what they see, they soak it all in,” Ycoy-Walton said.
Allegedly, some parents across the district chose to keep students from class on Wednesday and some are even considering moving their kids to alternative schools or private school, says Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Bay Area.
He shared that the Jewish community is fearing for their lives and are starting to feel excluded in all areas of society, now including schools.
“We need to show that we are resilient, that we belong to this community and that we’re not going anywhere. We have to overcome that sense of fear right now and show the broader community who we are,” Gregory said.
Gregory wished that the lesson plans had been more inclusive to all sides of the conflict, saying that Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, and Israeli groups should all have a voice in the curriculum.
