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How Scary and Revealing

On Oct. 24, Guilford Superintendent Paul Freeman sent a letter to the entire Guilford Public School (GPS) Community commenting “on the terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas against the people of Israel on Oct. 7.” He starts the letter by saying, “As the leader of our public Schools,” but then un-leaderlike, explains why he took 17 days to issue his statement. He also says, “I know that as an educator, it is not always my place or my purview to comment on global events or the meanings of those events.” This is curious since one of the six core competencies included in GPS’ Portrait of a Graduate vision of what our High School graduates should be is for them to be global citizens.

Superintendent Freeman absolutely needed to issue an immediate, clear, unequivocal statement condemning the genocide Hamas engaged in on Oct. 7. But unlike the leader he claims to be, he could not address the atrocities committed by Hamas without also condemning Israel for their justified response when he says, “I also feel that we must, now, name the suffering that is occurring in Gasa ... it is my hope that this community will recognize that the ability to empathize with both these moral positions need not be mutually exclusive.”

Shamelessly, he promotes his Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI) initiative when he says, “We in the GPS will remain committed to teaching our students the critical thinking and social-emotional skills that will be essential to them.”

Arguably, DEI curriculum is mindless, racist, and antisemitic. It teaches that white people (including Jews) are oppressors because of “systemic racism” and that our kids need to become “activist antiracists” in order to” make our world a better place.”

How scary is this, and how revealing is Superintendent Freeman’s letter?

Dave Holman

Guilford