After Superintendent Jill Gildea read a statement addressing a recent incident in which a swastika was found in Jewish teacher Josh Goldberg’s classroom, School Board member Andrew Caplan responded emotionally. He called the incident ignorant, but also condemned some feedback the district has received from the Jewish community.
Rabbi David Levinsky emailed his congregation and requested that people upset by reported anti-semitic incidents contact school board president Erin Grady and Superintendent Jill Gildea to advocate for anti-bias training and diversity curriculum.
Speaking for 10 minutes, Caplan pointed out he and two other board members are Jewish. He said emails he’s received about anti-semitic incidents were “pathetic,” “ignorant,” “preposterous” and “insane.”
“I’m not upset that people are angry. Mr. Goldberg should be angry. All Jews in this community should be angry, all Latinos should be angry. All people of color should be. White people should be angry. Everyone should be upset. But we don't solve this by threats that we've been put on notice that we will be sued. I would love to see that - I'd love to be sued for being Jewish. The threats that are coming to us are pathetic, ignorant, just like the student who wrote the swastika in the classroom.”
Caplan closed his comments with a plea to parents:
“To everyone out there listening, teach your children the lessons that hate does not fight hate. It just doesn't. It just creates more animosity."
Goldberg is the social studies department chair at the high school. He spoke during public comment and said he has experienced anti-semitism throughout his lifetime. He said since finding the swastika, he has learned about more than 60 recent incidents of racism and anti-semitism in Park City schools.
“It went viral, and students started talking, and pretty soon I was bombarded with incidents that can be construed as hate crimes or hate speech that is rife throughout the district, especially at Ecker, Treasure, and in the high school.”
Goldberg said the district does not have the resources to deal with the problem and he believes the swastika incident is the final straw.
“Staffing training--we need a cultural shift, a significant and major cultural shift to occur from the top on down. I find it abhorrent. I believe that the Jewish community here is committed to civic dialogue. And I think what you're seeing is people have had it. I know a number of incidents, instances were brought specifically to the district, which were not dealt with or swept under the rug.”
After Goldberg spoke, Caplan spoke directly to him, thanking him before adding that the Latinx community faces greater discrimination than the Jewish community. Caplan then returned to condemning emails the district had received about the incidents as being too critical.
Back and forth discussion between board members and public commenters is not permitted in meetings, according to rules posted on the board’s web page.
The Park City Board of Education also published a letter on its website Tuesday asking the community to give input on the problem of hate speech but to refrain from disparaging emails and personal attacks against board members and district administration.
The school district won’t comment to KPCW, after saying through its lawyer last November it would not engage with the station at least until the Summit County Attorney’s investigation into mask mandate compliance at Parley’s Park is complete.
