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Noticing an increase in hurtful and offensive language — including antisemitic, racial and ethnic slurs — over the last year and half, administrators at Hillview Middle School and Menlo-Atherton High School have started initiatives to combat the issue and campuses more welcoming to all students.
The Menlo Park middle school launched “Walk a Mile” Wednesdays in late January in which staffers record video testimonials of their own experiences with hurtful language as middle schoolers. The uptick district officials have noticed includes two incidents at the end of last school year and three this school year, said district Public Information Officer Parke Treadway in an email.
“Unfortunately, we are not immune to the rise in hate speech and ethnic slurs being used across the country as incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitism have recently affected our own families,” a recent Menlo Park City School District newsletter states.
The number of hate speech incidents at Hillview remain low, but more incidents may be reported and noticed as a result of the work around creating belonging and connection, Treadway said.
The week of Feb. 13, a racial slur was written on a desk in one of Hillview’s classrooms, Principal Danielle O’Brien said in a Feb. 17 email to families.
As part of the “Walk a Mile” project, sixth grade teacher Danielle Beres shared how classmates made antisemitic comments toward her when she was in middle school and how they affected her.
Assistant Principal Johnna Becker described how her elementary school classmates gave her offensive nicknames as a kid.
“I still to this day, at my age, many, many, many years older, I can’t even say those words … because they still hurt me,” she said.
Incidents at M-A
Menlo-Atherton Principal Karl Losekoot reported an antisemitic incident on campus. There was a single swastika on one bathroom tile, and two swastikas (with lines drawn over them) on a second tile in a G-Wing girls bathroom at the Atherton school in early December, according to a Dec. 8 Atherton Police Department report.
Because this was not the first time “swastika” type of emblems were found on school grounds, Principal Karl Losekoot reported the incident to police, according to the report.
“We are encouraged that students who have seen these images have immediately reported their presence and the school has been able to remove them,” Losekoot said in an email to students in December. “We need M-A to be a safe space for all students, a place where students and staff can feel respected and supported.”
In an email to families, Losekoot said: “We know that antisemitism is on the rise in the nation, both in terms of smaller scale incidents that occur in a community to a larger public, antisemitic statements made by public figures.”
It’s not known when the swastikas were drawn and police do not have leads on suspects, according to the report.
Losekoot told The Almanac that the school created a safe space committee of students, staff and parents as a result of the incident. The group has met twice so far and plans to meet twice a month, he said.
