We are proud students, alumni, and parents of the Cresskill school district. It has recently come to our attention that a member of the staff at Cresskill High School, has expressed viewpoints on Facebook which do not align with the values set forth by the Cresskill school district. 

The mission statement of the Cresskill Public Schools reads: "The Cresskill Schools will promote academic excellence and foster self-esteem in a dynamic, caring environment and will prepare students to be life-long learners and contributors in an evolving and ever-changing world." Those viewpoints expressed not only demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding in the subject that this teacher teaches, but can also be damaging to students in minority groups and the LGBTQ+ community. 

For example, "If a dude pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him." The prescribed treatment, by psychiatrists for gender dysphoria, or "conflict between a person's physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify", is to allow those people with gender dysphoria to "express their true selves and may openly be affirmed in their gender identity." 

Not only does this statement present factual inaccuracies but succeeds to spread proven conspiracy theories, by stating "It was cool for Joe Biden to 'blackmail' the President of Ukraine, but it's an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquires about it," and "Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections is good." 

In addition, the statement contains multiple factual inaccuracies such as "somehow it is un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America." The census is a count of every person who lives in the United States, not simply a count of Americans, a fact which is taught in high school and to which this teacher should have been aware, given his tenure as a social studies teacher. 

Moreover, the statement contains overt racism, in stating "Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome," implying not only that those who immigrate through the southern border, mostly brown (Mexican, Latin American, etc.) people, are not only less deserving than their white counterparts who come from Europe, but that they also must be "illiterate" and "gang-bangers." 

The statement also specifically states the "Chinese virus," hate rhetoric specifically used to allude to the current COVID-19 pandemic, which given Cresskill's large population of Asian and Asian-American students and the recent rise in anti-Asian hate crime in America is extremely inappropriate and frightening. 

Teachers are not apolitical, nor are they expected to be. However, when those viewpoints marginalize students, put them in positions where they feel as they are less than because of their race or gender identity, you are no longer able to foster the safe learning environment set forth by the mission statement of the Cresskill schools. Viewpoints such as these, which directly marginalize parts of the student population for which the Cresskill school district says that they care for, can do irreparable harm to students' self-esteem, lifelong traumas for students, which they will carry with them past graduation, into their adulthood. 

We demand that this teacher be given serious reprimand and undergo, along with all other teachers in the Cresskill School district, bias training in addition to racial and gender sensitivity training. We also demand that the board considers replacing the “social studies” curriculum with real, comprehensive American history courses and sets forth a public, demonstrative plan with executable goals and benchmarks to create a more inclusive environment in schools. The Cresskill school district has always prided itself on being an inclusive environment for students. This behavior from a teacher is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.