We are writing regarding the walkout at West Orange High School scheduled for Monday, October 30th. We are asking that you dismiss school two periods early so that this protest doesn’t happen during school hours. It is fundamentally important that students in your school who do not agree with or wish to participate in this walkout feel safe and do not feel an obligation to support an activity that goes against their own morals and beliefs. It is also important that they know that the town and school administration are protecting them. 

We would never encourage censoring a protest but will point out that the first amendment does have some caveats including threats. “From the river to the sea,” as referenced in Mayor Susan McCartney’s message, encourages the elimination of Jews - THIS IS HATE SPEECH - making us question if this in fact is meant to be a peaceful walkout. If peaceful opposition is the true goal, then we question how much the people organizing it actually know about this conflict if they are using this term. As educators, it is your responsibility to remain impartial and to patrol hate speech, to ensure that your students are not fed rhetoric to perpetuate untruths that feed into bigotry and antisemitism. Has West Orange High School educated its student body on the history of this conflict and what these terms mean? This is not political but historical. Separately, have you empowered students who denounce the terrorist acts of October 7th and support Israel’s right to defend itself to organize a counter protest? 

I think it is unlikely that we will convince you to condemn this protest but, again, we implore you to dismiss school two periods early so that all of your students feel that their rights are equally important and protected.