Part of the standing-room-only crowd attending the October 17 Cherry Hill Board of Education meeting. Many spoke of the district's response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Students and parents both scolded and commended the Cherry Hill schools administration for its response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict during a standing-room-only school board meeting on Tuesday evening.
During the meeting, Jewish students and adults expressed increased concern or shared their children's fears of attending school since Hamas militants attacked Israel earlier this month and Israel in turn declared war on Hamas, with airstrikes in Gaza.
At the same time, students and adults of Muslim or Palestinian backgrounds told the school board of fighting on school grounds, hearing chants about dead Muslims, being called "terrorists" by peers and adults in the district and receiving threats on personal social media accounts.
School board members condemned the hostile acts and encouraged peace and unity. The board also lauded a group of students who recently made a video that expressed the same message.
"They are an example. They are our light. They are our future," Joel Mayer, vice president of the Board of Education said of those students who made the video. "I am so proud of what they have done, and I know and will continue to be proud of what they will do."
Each person who spoke drew applause.
After the board ended the 2½ hours of public comment on the Israel-Hamas conflict, acting Superintendent Kwame Morton thanked everyone who spoke, but declined to address his actions.
The Tuesday night regular board meeting came after a video of a heated exchange between students at Cherry Hill High School East last week was distributed on social media.
In a letter to the Cherry Hill community on October 12, Morton and board President Miriam Stern said the video caused "further concern in our community."
"This short video represented a brief moment in time that was addressed immediately by school staff and administration," they stated in the letter. "Acts of violence, discrimination or mistreatment in our schools are not, and will not, be tolerated."
On Tuesday, the school board also:
- Reported that information from the stakeholders tasked with helping to find a new superintendent should be published on the district’s website by the end of the week
- Approved a resolution supporting Cherry Hill Township's Safe Routes to School grant application in the areas of James H. Johnson Elementary School, Rosa International Middle School, A. Russell Knight Elementary School and Estelle V. Malberg Early Childhood Center
- Accepted a $250,000 Trees for Schools grant that will cover costs of buying, planting and maintaining trees on district property
- Recognized the Henry C. Beck Middle School's Project Invent Team and their advisor as one of seven nationwide schools to present to Silicon Valley executives
