‘Not an endorsement,’ school board chair says
In wake of the Hamas-led October 7 massacre in Israel, the Essex-Westford School District board chair has defended keeping Black Lives Matter flags on school campuses, according to Parents Defending Education. Chair Robert Carpenter says flying the flag is “not an endorsement” of the organization.
Concerned community members reached out to Parents Defending Education regarding a response they received from an Essex Westford School District board member who defended the Black Lives Matter flags on the district’s campuses. On October 20, concerned community members sent a letter in an email to the district school board demanding that the BLM flags be removed from the district’s schools due to the movement’s antisemitic and anti-Israel activism.
On October 23, school board member and chair Robert Carpenter responded and defended BLM flags in the district:
I do want to offer some clarity on something that has been stated in past meetings. The flags are not an endorsement of the BLM organization. Following our policy, students brought forward a request to fly a flag with the statement “Black Lives Matter” in order to show support for BIPOC students in our district and community. I understand your concern noted in your email and hopefully, this should alleviate that concern over the association with the BLM Organization.
On October 17 the “Black Lives Matter at School” organization issued a statement that did not condemn Hamas and instead blamed “Israeli settler colonialism, occupation, blockade, apartheid, and attempted genocide of millions of Palestinians” for the unfolding loss of life.
“Palestinians are reminding us that decolonization is not a metaphor or abstraction, but requires real, daily struggle,” the Black Lives Matter at School statement said.
On October 9, the grassroots arm of Black Lives Matter shared a statement on X accusing Israel of “apartheid.” The organization then stated that it “stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting 57 years of settler colonialism and apartheid.”
The BLM chapter of Chicago also posted an image on X of a Hamas terrorist paraglider with the phrase “I stand with Palestine.”
Most of the content in this news story was sourced from a Parents Defending Education press statement.
Categories: Education, Uncategorized
It was completely wrong for a public school to have hung a BLM flag in the first place. It is indeed an endorsement of what that organization stands for. And now of course they are doubling down on supporting it despite the clear evidence of its antisemitic and anti-Israel platform. Wonder if the school would be so accepting of flying a KKK or Confederate flag?
In for a penny, in for a pound. 🙄
It’s not so much that the BLM flag represents antisemitism… such that it does. The public-school monopoly is clearly anti-liberty and anti-freedom, as are those who knowingly, or unwittingly, refuse to hold it accountable.
The BLM flags flying over Essex School District properties are indeed the official logo of the BLM organization, are they not Mr Carpenter? Just as the US flag is indeed the US flag, and not just some random stars and stripes painted on a piece of cloth (at least for now 🙄.)
For you to now claim that these flags are not an endorsement of the “Black Lives Matter” organization, but merely the “sentiment” that “black lives matter.” is – let me be frank – blatant lies.
You ought to resign immediately.
This subject is a sticky wicket. When I think about all the other L. M.s possible, and how Bernie Sanders (is it a coincidence that his initials are B. S. ?) stated that all lives matter, and how he was shouted down for that, I just don’t hold much hope for the BLM folks recognizing and admitting to any hypocrisy .
Still get a kick out of lily white school districts bending over backward to show they are not racist by flying a Marxist oriented flag that condones the massacre of Israeli women and children. Shame on them.
Liberal, anti-free-expression weenies can find offense in the most benign of inanimate objects or statements. We hear idiotic claims from the most learned college professors such as: the reason that African Americans dont engage in outdoor recreation in proportional numbers is that trees remind them of lynching. Local activists have objected to meteorologists warning of “black ice” on the roads because people will associate “black” with a hazardous situation. The very origin of the statement “Black lives matter” was based on the railroading of a Minneapolis police officer by a jury for murder when the Hennepin County Medical Examiner testified that Officer Chauvin was not responsible for the death of George Floyd. Yet we have been cowed by allowing the graphic of this incendiary and fraud-prone organization to be displayed on public property, it’s flag flown alongside the Stars and Stripes? Our public highway officials have approved the painting of it’s message in bold yellow lettering upon our roadways where it can easily be mistaken at street level for a crosswalk? (While the rest of the road striping in Vermont is in chronically atrocious condition). And now we hear the statement from a public official that flying that flag on public school property is “not an endorsement” of the organization but simply a show of support for BIPOC students? Maybe it’s time to ask the question: why do we still have a symbol prominently displayed on public school property which only supports a certain segment of the student population differentiated by race or skin tone? We are living in the Twilight Zone…
@ Rich
And how touching that they want to show their support of BIPOC students, a minority in VT. Where’s their support of Jewish students, another minority in VT? How do they suppose any knowledgeable Jew feels upon seeing the BLM flag, knowing it represents a group cheering on Hamas? But Jewish Lives don’t matter.
About as idiotic as LGBT etc support of Hamas. Has to be a death wish, doesn’t it? The deceiver is very good at deceiving.
Black Lives Matter was a Marxist agitprop riot shakedown scam from the start. The typical annual number of unarmed black people shot by the police, who aren’t actively attacking a police officer, in a country of some 330 million, is literally under five. And the numbers are similar for white people. While even one innocent person shot by the police is a problem, it’s simply not a racially disparate issue, especially considering the much higher rates of black criminality. Oh, and Floyd died of an overdose, and the riots killed 40 innocent people. That race-communist flag doesn’t belong on public property. At all.
The ESSEX School board needs to reminds themselves that when the hangman comes he came for them because they did not stand up when their neighbors were being slaughtered.
Academia fails to understand the lessons of history.
It seems to me that it is time to replace the school board
You can’t replace the school board when the majority of the Essex district electorate concur with its ‘woke’ sensibilities. You can, however, sue the district and the Agency of Education, for their failure to provide constitutional ‘equal protection’ – namely, the option of providing a school choice voucher that other Vermont school districts provide.
…”flying the flag is “not an endorsement” of the organization.” Ah….. yes it is.
Only flags that should be in public schools are the US and state that’s it.
I grew up in Essex town, graduated from Esses in ’68, my children and grandchildren went to EHS. What a shame! Essex is not the same town that I grew up in. Essex has been infiltrated by liberal idiots!!!! That’s why I moved up to northern Vt.
Officer Tatum lays it on the line regarding BLM…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JDQ96Ek7V0E
I sent that clip to 18 of my closest friends who actually believe what Officer Tatum said was the Truth and Spot On!! THX.
If you either need to be told black lives matter or feel you need to tell others you are operating at a level of idiocy that is insulting to, not just black people, but all people of sound mind. Just stop already.
Can’t we all just get a long. Everyone has an opinion…keep it to yourself. Kids can read and I think this is all bad news for all of us.
Since public schools have been focusing on issues other than academic, no, the problem is…kids can’t read.
You know, Michael, we would keep it to ourselves, if taxpayers weren’t forced to subsidize the behavior, or parents had vouchers to homeschool and send their kids to the schools they believe are best for their children. Never mind that half of the kids, who graduate from Vermont’s public schools as they are, can’t read to grade level, or write to grade level, or do math and science to grade level.
Actually, I think this has all been far too quiet for far too long. Our schools are no longer serving the community. They have become a political tool to corrupt our children. This will come back to haunt us the longer we allow it to continue. The BLM flag is just the tip of the iceberg.