[BHS Etree] ADMIN: Update from BHS Admin Regarding Offensive Instagram Account

[BHS Etree]

PLEASE do not reply to this email.



Good morning,



I want to take a moment to give our community a sense of what has
transpired since my communication last Tuesday evening about the offensive
Instagram account posts. Our entire admin team has been working very hard
all week to hear from students, families, and staff, make decisions about
how to move forward, and provide support wherever we can.



It is inevitable that once a story like this enters the realm of outside
media outlets, all nuance gets lost and rumors swirl.  It is also true that
we cannot provide information about specific discipline consequences issued
to students.  What I can say is that we have worked through our
investigation and begun the process of helping students to come together
and repair the harm that was done by these posts, a process that will
continue throughout this week and beyond.  It has been a week filled with
high emotion, deep anger, and many tears.  It has also been a week of
surprising vulnerability, incredible resilience, and a real willingness to
engage and struggle with all that has once again been brought, raw and
real, to the forefront of our interactions and conversations on campus.



Social media, and its potential for great harm, is something we continue to
wrestle with alongside campuses across the nation.  We have chosen not to
release the images from the social media account that were at the center of
our investigation in this matter, and want to communicate our rationale for
not doing so.  We believe that to share them publicly would cause even more
trauma to many members of our community, and give the ignorance contained
in those posts an additional level of notoriety and power which we feel
they absolutely do not deserve.



I want to close by saying that even though there are hopeful and
encouraging moments from this past week, it would be inauthentic and a
disservice to our Black students, Jewish students, students with
disabilities, and all students who feel harmed by these posts to suggest in
any way that our efforts so far have wrapped this up neatly or that we are
ready to move on.  Tensions on our campus are high, and in fact led to
another incident on Friday afternoon in which a heated exchange between
students led to a physical altercation that then became a new and troubling
issue for staff and students to process.  There is much work to be done,
certainly, but I want you all to know that we will not waver from our
commitment to create a campus culture that enables all of our students to
feel safe, secure, and able to learn.  Indeed, our most powerful moments
this past week have come from listening to their voices as they articulate
what they need in order for all of that to happen.



Thank you for your time and attention to this message,

Erin, on behalf of the admin team

_____________________________

Marguerite Fa-Kaji and Dylan Kaufman are the parent-volunteer facilitators
of the Etree; please direct any questions about the Etree to them at
bhs-owner at lmi.net.



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BHS website: http://bhs.berkeleyschools.net/

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BUSD Non-Discrimination Statement / la Política de No Discriminación:
http://bit.ly/BUSDNDPolicy



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