Reporting from the foyer of Forest Hill Collegiate Institute (FHCI) in Toronto where students and the Toronto District School Board are in an uproar over the removal of the Gay Pride Flag from the school entrance.
Oh wait, one moment. My producer is speaking to in my ear. It wasn’t a Gay Pride Flag. Oh…. It was a banner that resembles the flag of Israel to promote Jewish Heritage month. It was also there to remind the students that Holocaust Survivors were coming to speak to the school The principal of the school, Reiko Fuentes, said the banner was “too controversial” because it resembled the Israeli flag . It was also there to remind the students that Holocaust Survivors’ were coming to speak to the school.
My producer is forwarding background information. I am reading from my phone:
“When Noa Elfassy and her friends from Forest Hill Collegiate recently returned from “March of the Living” — an emotional two-week trip that takes Jewish high school students to Poland to examine the horrors of the Holocaust and then to Israel to learn about the birth of the Jewish state — they were told their school’s annual Holocaust Remembrance assembly wasn’t being held this year.
So the Grade 11 students decided to organize their own two-day program and were asked by school administrators to hold it in May to coincide with Canada’s inaugural Jewish Heritage Month.”
Considering the number of Holocaust deniers and sites available on social media this could be one of the last moments when students can learn form eye witnesses. Yes, the Nazis put Jews in ovens for being Jewish. And the world was wilfully blind to all of it.
Islamic heritage Month apparently went off without a hitch
It seems the banner was safe for several weeks. Problems came up the night before the event. A student felt unsafe upon seeing the banner that resembled the flag of Israel. It was enough for the principal, Reiko Fuentes, to remove it from the front of the school and place it in another room.
The TDSB, known for its calls for diversity tolerances and inclusion agreed with the Principal.
Apparently removing the banner that resembled the Israeli flag was not considered hurtful to the Jewish students.
In 2011 when Muslim prayer was allowed in Valley Park Middle School, Shari Schwartz-Maltz, communications manager for the school board, said
“School boards have an obligation to provide a welcoming environment for all students, including those who hold religious beliefs, and they should seek to reasonably accommodate the beliefs of their students.
“If the board is accommodating the religious beliefs of these students, I should hope that they will assure the religious freedoms of other students as well. For example, in many schools across the country, Christian students have been wrongly denied the ability to hold Bible studies over lunch or recess, and most recently, parents seeking to exempt their children from classes inconsistent with their faith have been challenged. We would hope that the accommodation shown to this group would be extended to Christian students as well.”
I am assuming Jews were included in this inclusivity.
According to B’nai Brith
a “student, who wished to remain anonymous, told B’nai Brith Canada they had a lead role in organizing the annual Holocaust Remembrance Assembly last year. The date of the assembly, which was decided by the administration and only communicated to students three weeks prior, fell during the March of the Living, a trip that brings Jewish students in Grade 11 to Poland and Israel to explore the history of the Holocaust.
The student said many Holocaust survivors who ordinarily speak at such events would have been attending the March, and so it was difficult to secure a speaker for the assembly. The student alleged that when they brought this issue to an administrator at the school, they said, “Clearly, you don’t care about the Holocaust or this wouldn’t be an issue.”
According to the student, the administration refused to move the assembly so that it would not conflict with the March of the Living and even threatened to cancel it.
The administration also forbade students from discussing gas chambers and other events of the Holocaust during the assembly, the student said, and even prohibited certain images that were “too graphic” to be shown, such as Jews’ heads being shaved. “I didn’t understand why I was told to hide and not talk about true events,” the student said.
The student alleged that the same administrator told them to put a “positive twist” on the event and make it a “happy celebration,” as well as compare the Holocaust to current events in Syria.
According to students:
“There are so many clubs at Forest Hill that celebrate all backgrounds but it just seems like ours is constantly targeted at the school”
I graduated from FHCI in 1969. At that time the community was mostly Jewish and the high school adjusted its schedule to accommodate the students and the vast majority of teachers who were Jewish and would be absent on Jewish holidays. Apparently, accommodating the Jewish population is not on the top ten list of accommodations at the School or the Board, today.
The school offered a statement that read: going forward staff will have conversations with students to ensure they feel safe and welcome. As well, an assembly will be held tomorrow to continue the discussion.
Wait, my producer is speaking to me again. The students at the school held a protest with the help of several Jewish organizations. The students wore clothes that were blue and white and it seems this caused seizures amongst others as the colour of the clothes reminded them of the Israeli flag.
Oh wait… my producer… Oh… no seizures reported.
The banner is back up in the front foyer. All is well.
Oh no, my producer has just told me it has been alleged that the student who gave the announcement the day after the banner was put back called out “Free Palestine” at the end of morning announcements.
I assume this is part of their plan to make all students feel safe and welcome, except for the fact “Free Palestine” refers to the call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Which of course requires the ethnic cleansing of the Jews in the Jewish State of Israel and a new Muslim state to take its place.
What will happen next?
I leave you with the words of Robert Walker, National Director of Hasbara Fellowships Canada
“Working with students, parents and our Hasbara Fellowships legal team, we are glad to see that the Jewish Heritage Month flag was put up, but this entire episode reflects a larger issue with a seeming lack of process in how decisions are made. Moving forward, both the school board and Forest Hill Collegiate itself must create clear policies ensuring this cannot happen again.”
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
