Dear Halton District School Board Trustees and Halton Catholic District School Board Trustees;
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation is a charitable organization committed to safe inclusive schools for all, and combating racism, antisemitism and all forms of hatred. We are extremely concerned to learn of the February 26th planned and coordinated walkouts to take place at four Milton secondary schools — Elsie MacGill, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Francis Xavier, and Craig Kielburger — schools under the supervision of the Halton District School Board and the Halton Catholic District School Board.
From first hand experience, garnered at similar walkouts in other districts, we expect these walkouts will focus on anti-Israel chants and symbols, thus promoting hateful rhetoric contrary to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, adopted by the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments. Such walkouts will undoubtedly create a poisoned environment for Jewish students and staff, increasing an already unacceptable level of antisemitism in Ontario schools. The messages, including the focus on "Palestine," while ignoring the malevolent, barbaric invasion of Israel by Palestinian Arabs on October 7, 2023, will leave Jewish students and staff feeling targeted and unsafe, and misrepresent current affairs to young people who do not have sufficient information to make informed opinions.
Using the school and its resources to indoctrinate children, while neither teaching empirical facts and history, nor current information about a complex situation thousands of miles from Canada, is entirely inappropriate. Such a walkout jeopardizes the inclusive and welcoming environment that you are tasked to create.
Furthermore, the walkouts are planned for school hours. To allow these to take place using your school property and networks as a base would be a clear failure of the Halton Boards and administrations’ educational duties. Surely you are as concerned as we are, that the focus of the organizers is not the safety and welfare of all the students; they will be walking along busy traffic thoroughfares. Parents do not send their children to public schools to be used for ideological agendas held by some community or school members.
It is up to the Trustees and Directors of Education to put a stop to this attempt to turn schools into harmful, hostile battlegrounds, and to maintain order by ensuring students under their care remain in the classroom during school hours. It is imperative that publicly funded schools focus on education and not geo-political biases of educators.
We urge you to take note of our concerns and do the best for the students; keep them at school, and teach them about Canadian values of inclusivity, tolerance, and respect.
Sincerely,
Andria Spindel
Executive Director
Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation