Parents in the Tamalpais Union High School District want to know why students at an LGBTQ+ awareness event were shown a video with an image of an avowed Middle East terrorist.
The recent event was supposed to be a “stop and learn” session on LGBTQ+ issues, according to Tara Taupier, the district superintendent. It included a video in which a woman wore a T-shirt showing Leila Khaled, a Palestinian political activist who hijacked an airplane in 1969, carrying a rifle. Next to the image were the words “resistance is not terrorism.”
Taupier, in a letter to the district community on Tuesday, apologized for the video, which she said was created in 2015 by the Chronicle of Higher Education in collaboration with an organization called Campus Pride.
“We, as a district, acknowledge that this image is troubling, particularly because of its connection to violence and terrorism against Jewish people,” Taupier said. “We apologize for any pain this has caused.”
Taupier declined to say which faculty members, if any, prescreened the video, or who made the choice to include it.
“While the focus of the video was to foster understanding and support for LGBTQ+ students, we recognize that the presence of this image may have detracted from that important message and caused unintentional harm,” Taupier said. “We take full responsibility for this oversight and are taking immediate steps to ensure such incidents do not happen in the future.”
Benedetto Cico, a parent in the district, said he wanted to know more about how the video was chosen for the event.
“I would like to understand how such content passed the screening process of the district,” Cico said. “Who proposed that video, who approved it? Did they watch it before showing it to the students? Is the person responsible for such a bad choice held accountable in any possible way?”
The questions come at a time when the district has been embroiled in controversy over its ethnic studies program. The controversy, which has included allegations of antisemitic references in the curriculum and political influence from outside activist groups, had been somewhat moderated in recent weeks through frequent parent feedback sessions. But the video has inflamed the same tensions.
“The image of Leila Kahled on the T-shirt wearing a keffiyeh armed with an AK-47 with the words ‘resistance is not terrorism’ speaks to the insidious nature of antisemitic content that we see popping up in school curriculum all over the Bay Area — as well as today’s far left anti-Israel agenda, and sadly, plain old Jew Hate,” Laurie Dubin, a leader of the parent group Tam Union Together, said in an email.
“Equally concerning is that the T-shirt image and words relate to current themes in the Tam District’s written ethnic studies curriculum,” Dubin added, saying the curriculum “features historical armed resistance without critical analysis of their effectiveness or examples of more peaceful protest movements and their leaders.”
Betina Baumgarten, a parent in the district, blasted the use of the video.
“I wish there was no need for an apology,” Baumgarten said in an email. “The Jewish community has offered time and time again to be involved and engaged — and time and time again, instead of accepting our offers to sit at the table and offer our perspective, the district chooses to operate as it does.”
Baumgarten called the video “a serious oversight on so many levels — something that should have been more thoroughly vetted.”
“It could have been quickly identified if someone at the table had the requisite experience and insight,” Baumgarten said.