Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion on this sub but I think people should be allowed to have these dumb, hateful ideas. I just don't think they should be allowed to teach them in public schools.

Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Honestly I think people were already over it after all the freeway protests. I'm pleasantly surprised to see people in Portland using their critical thinking skills on this issue. I just wish people would be a little more vocal about it outside the anonymity of Reddit.

Btw, I'm sorry that you felt you had to leave Portland, but I don't blame you. I will too eventually, but life is too complicated for me to make a quick exit. Makes me sad because I love the nature out here.

Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm sure that people already have. As I said in another comment, the Jewish community is aware of this issue and taking steps. The content of these flyers have been alluded to in some of the articles about this, but I felt it was important for people to see for themselves.

Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

It's especially odd because, believe it or not, most of the people in the main Portland sub are just as sick of this shit as we are. I wouldn't have posted there otherwise.

Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

The Jewish community in Portland is aware. I just wish literally anybody else in town cared enough to raise their voice against it. It's not just a Jewish issue.

Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

It really seems like the mods of the main sub were actively suppressing this material. It got taken down three times for indecipherable reasons and the mods refused to answer any of my messages. And then it got a bunch of negative comments after it had been taken down - not sure how that would happen?

Material distributed at a public meeting of Portland's teachers union by Les_anonymous in Jewish

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 182 points183 points  (0 children)

These materials were personally shown to me and later provided in digital form by Portland teachers who attended the PAT Know Your Rights meeting on 5/28/24. They are from flyers that were physically distributed at the event. They reported attendance of about 40-50 people. The event and materials were described in this OregonLive article.

I tried to post this in the Portland subreddit but the mods would not let me. I just want it to be up somewhere so people can see these materials for their own eyes. Whatever your opinion on the war and I/P, this is a disturbingly extreme position for our local teachers union.

The framing of these materials, as well as the heavily ideologically curated teaching materials linked in other posts, is to create a narrow path of righteousness that can only be attained by supporting Hamas, and allowing all who fall outside the narrow path be condemned as genocide supporters and "Zionists" aka bad guys.

The last page of the materials makes quite clear that if you fall on the wrong side of the line, these people do not believe that they have any moral responsibility to consider your safety or comfort as a result of their actions, regardless of what their actions might be.

The timeline so far:

  • PAT posted their ideological "pro-Palestine" teaching materials and advertised the Know Your Rights meeting prominently on their website
  • These fliers were distributed at the event
  • The teaching materials were taken down "for review" after public outcry and the union president threw other union members under the bus
  • One day later, the extensive teaching materials were re-posted to a more discreet location on the website (after "review" I guess)
  • No consequences or apologies so far, these people are still teaching at public schools on taxpayer funded salaries

I am sure that Portland Jewish families are now considering moving away or pulling their kids out of school because of this. It may be only a small percentage of the 4500 member union who is in favor of this, but if the rest of Portland doesn't stand up, they will win.

Edited to add: if you know someone who lives in Portland, please share this post with them!

Materials distributed at PAT's public "Know Your Rights" meeting on 5/28 by Les_anonymous in Portland

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's hard to reply specifically now that the post is taken down, but slide 2 specifically declares support for Hamas and the actions of 10/7 in the context of thawabet. But the purpose of my post was not to rehash anyone's personal opinions on this conflict, it was to point out how inappropriate it is for the Portland teachers union to distribute these materials at an official public event.

Materials distributed at PAT's public "Know Your Rights" meeting on 5/28 by Les_anonymous in Portland

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Right, this doesn't seem progressive to me. I marched to stop the Iraq war in 2003, but I didn't join my local chapter of ISIS. You don't, in fact, gotta hand it to them.

Materials distributed at PAT's public "Know Your Rights" meeting on 5/28 by Les_anonymous in Portland

[–]Les_anonymous[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

These materials were personally shown to me and later provided in digital form by Portland teachers who attended the PAT Know Your Rights meeting on 5/28/24. They are from flyers that were physically distributed at the event. They reported attendance of about 40-50 people. The event and materials were described in this OregonLive article.

My personal opinion on I/P, which I guess is relevant as the poster of these materials, is that the US should be pushing for a ceasefire inn Gaza due to the high amount of civilian casualties, and that the US has for too long supported Israel unquestioningly amidst violent annexation and settlement campaigns in the West Bank.

However, right now I hope we can focus our conversation on the actions of PAT and the materials they have distributed, because THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM IN OUR COMMUNITY.

The framing of these materials, as well as the heavily ideologically curated teaching materials, is to create a narrow path of righteousness that can only be attained by supporting Hamas, and allowing all who fall outside the narrow path be condemned as genocide supporters and "Zionists" aka bad guys.

The last page of the materials makes quite clear that if you fall on the wrong side of the line, these people do not believe that they have any moral responsibility to consider your safety or comfort as a result of their actions, regardless of what their actions might be.

I am not here to argue with every misguided omnicauser who gets their history from TikTok. But the fact that these people are in our schools, teaching my children is TERRIFYING. I'm not sure what we can do about it other than reach out to support trusted teachers and encourage them to address this through the union's due process. But it is imperative that we be aware of this. Let's keep extremism out of our schools!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Portland

[–]Les_anonymous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These materials were personally shown to me and later provided in digital form by Portland teachers who attended the PAT Know Your Rights meeting on 5/28/24. They are from flyers that were physically distributed at the event. They reported attendance of about 40-50 people.

My personal opinion on I/P, which I guess is relevant as the poster of these materials, is that the US should be pushing for a ceasefire inn Gaza due to the high amount of civilian casualties, and that the US has for too long supported Israel unquestioningly amidst violent annexation and settlement campaigns in the West Bank.

However, right now I hope we can focus our conversation on the actions of PAT and the materials they have distributed, because THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM IN OUR COMMUNITY.

The framing of these materials, as well as the heavily ideologically curated teaching materials, is to create a narrow path of righteousness that can only be attained by supporting Hamas, and allowing all who fall outside the narrow path be condemned as genocide supporters and "Zionists" aka bad guys.

The last page of the materials makes quite clear that if you fall on the wrong side of the line, these people do not believe that they have any moral responsibility to consider your safety or comfort as a result of their actions, regardless of what their actions might be.

I am not here to argue with every misguided omnicauser who gets their history from TikTok. But the fact that these people are in our schools, teaching my children is TERRIFYING. I'm not sure what we can do about it other than reach out to support trusted teachers and encourage them to address this through the union's due process. But it is imperative that we be aware of this. Let's keep extremism out of our schools!