Saugerties High School. (Photo by Dion Ogust)
A journaling assignment in a Saugerties High School English class is causing controversy throughout the community, leading to allegations of racism and calls for the teacher who assigned it to step down.
A screenshot of what appears to be the exercise given by teacher Hope Antonelli asked students to “(c)reate a bold topic/thematic sentence. Justify your claim key pieces of evidence, and also address the alternate claim.”
Two examples were given:
“George Floyd did not die because Chauvin’s knee was on his neck. He died from a heart attack and drug overdose. However, because Chauvin used excessive force and failed to render aid, he was convicted on all three counts by a jury of his peers. (Arrest was over a counterfeit $20 bill)”
“Brandon Mitchell was a juror in the trial. He was asked if he had any racially provoked negativity against police officers, would any of these incidents sway his judgment. He was specifically asked asked (sic) if he was involved in BLM and if he protested in any form against the officers involved in the George Floyd case. He answered no to both. New evidence has surfaced that he could not have been forthcoming in his statements. Should the Derek Chauvin case be retried because of Brandon Mitchell? Why or Why Not?”
District’s response
School officials yesterday would not confirm that the screenshot was authentic, citing confidentiality. Hudson Valley One received two separate examples from parents (here and here). Yesterday, a letter from district Superintendent Kirk Reinhardt was posted to the district website yesterday that referenced “a journaling assignment given in a Saugerties High School English class that was interpreted by at least one student to include biased content” and made several allusions to racial tensions and stated the board’s Diversity Committee would be meeting to discuss the issue.
In his letter to the community, Reinhardt addressed the importance of inclusivity to the district, adding that an investigation into the incident was underway to ensure “inappropriate assignments are not introduced to our students, intentional or not.”
Reinhardt’s letter also said the assignment was immediately revised after district officials were made aware that it was causing a student to be uncomfortable.
Protesters on Tuesday morning gathered across the street from the high school
Calls for teacher to be fired
In his interview with Hudson Valley One, Reinhardt said that he’d received “well over 50 or 60 e-mails from parents” about the issue, adding that Saugerties High Principal Tim Reid and members of the Board of Education had also heard from the community.
A group of protesters stood outside the high school on Tuesday morning seeking answers and calling for the firing of Antonelli. Hours later, two candidates for Town Board, Nina Schmidbaur and Tim Scott, released a joint statement on Facebook seeking Antonelli’s removal.
“We stand with the students and parents of Saugerties High School in opposition to the racist school assignment given by Mrs. Antonelli,” read Schmidbaur and Scott’s statement. “George Floyd was killed by police brutality. Revisionist history like this is disgraceful and dangerous. Because we believe in a zero tolerance policy on racism, we call for the termination of Mrs. Antonelli from Saugerties Central School District.”
School Board president says students and teachers should be allowed to make mistakes
During a meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday night, trustees addressed the situation indirectly ahead of an executive session to discuss the issue. Though they acknowledged that they’d received numerous public comments on the matter, they declined to read them.
Board President Robert Thomann said he believed both students and teachers should be allowed to make mistakes.
“It was about a teacher giving an assignment and a student being uncomfortable with it,” Thomann said, before citing the bible verse John 8:7 (“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”)
“Go figure, times haven’t changed too much,” Thomann said. “From what I saw in my inbox, what I saw on social media, there are a lot of people anxious to cast stones at an educator. Our teachers are tremendously dedicated…I think in this district we have to allow our students, (and) we have to allow our teachers to make mistakes, because that’s how you learn. You don’t learn by getting a pat on the back, saying ‘good job.’ You don’t learn by getting a participation trophy.”
An attempt to reach Antonelli for comment through her school e-mail address was referred to the district’s Director of Human Resources Daniel Erceg.
Superintendent: District must ‘do better’
Reinhardt this week spoke about his desire since arriving in the district ahead of the 2019-20 school year to create a climate where Saugerties students feel “safe, and respected and valued, and can reach their highest potential.”
The superintendent added that the district needs to work harder to do better.
“The racial and social tensions in our nation are significantly heightened because crucial discussions about racism have not always taken place in the past,” Reinhardt said in his letter to the community. “This is hard, but necessary work and we are all still learning. We acknowledge that we might get things wrong as we journey forward, but we know we must do better and are working to do so. This situation has elevated the need to be more conscious of the unintended consequences of assignments containing sensitive topics, especially those that involve race. We sincerely apologize to anyone who felt hurt by this.”
Reinhardt noted that the district has a Diversity Committee that meets on the third Wednesday of every month, where they will seek input from the community to prevent issues like the journaling assignment from happening again. He added that a Superintendent’s Conference Day scheduled for Tuesday, May 18 would include the use of “racially conscious curriculum” and a discussion about equity with the entire instructional staff.
“We strive to be a school environment where all students feel they are seen, heard, respected, and valued equally,” Reinhardt wrote. “We will accept no less.”
Dueling petitions
Over the past week, the issue has divided the community, with some hoping to see Antonelli fired, claiming the assignment was part of a pattern of bigotry from the teacher; others say that Antonelli sought to promote critical thinking and want her to remain with the district. Dueling petitions on change.org saw the latter faction receive five times as many signatures than the former as of Monday morning, May 17.
Meanwhile, Antonelli has been reassigned within the district according to a letter from Reinhardt posted to the district website on Wednesday, May 12.
“The District is investigating allegations of an inappropriate journalism assignment at the High School level,” reads Reinhardt’s letter. “The teacher has been reassigned pending the outcome of that investigation. The District takes allegations of this nature very seriously and wishes to emphasize that there are existing procedures under its Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) policy to make complaints or to bring to the District’s attention, any issues of this nature.”
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd on April 20. A video that showed Chauvin restraining Floyd by placing his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, ending in Floyd’s death, sparked the largest protests in decades, including a march of hundreds through Saugerties on June 12, 2020.
This teacher is far from racist! She is changeling student’s to think critically and look at issues from various points of view. Then to form their own opinion about a current issue. I believe this will help students not just listen to the media, but to dig deeper when deciding about important issues, a skill many adults lack.
Is this a real high school assignment?
1. The two “examples” (are they examples? Because one of them is a question.) are politically inflammatory and are sure to upset students and further enflame a sensitive subject. Why would a teacher provide two examples that represent only one side of an argument on the outcome of the Chauvin trial? I hope there is more than what we see on the two parent cell phone screen shots.
2. The trains students to write cookie-cutter statements designed only to satisfy Regents graders. Nowhere else in the world will they be asked to write such paragraphs. The assignment does not challenge students to think critically or write authentically.
3. The assignment is riddled with grammatical errors and typos.
As if the teacher’s Faux News twisting of the facts in the Chauvin case were not already appalling enough, school district officials are doubling down by punting responsibility onto the students, as if their “interpretation” or their “feeling uncomfortable” were inconveniencing the district. It’s like one of those phony apologies where the offender says, “I’m sorry you feel that way” instead of, “I’m sorry for what I did.” Sounds as if some school board members need to get the boot, along with this teacher.
Bill H
You are correct the assignment is full of grammatical errors and typos, just like your comment.
I have a couple, for sure. As do you, John D. I was definitely being nit-picky with that point and appreciate you calling me out.
“The teacher Hope Antonelli asked students to “(c)reate a bold topic/thematic sentence. Justify your claim key pieces of evidence, and also address the alternate claim.” It is for a journalism assignment, and she gave two examples coped right out of the news as examples of how journalists can create a point of view, even if it is not the complete truth, which is also why the second part is to “justify your claim.” People need to stop examining only pieces and look at the entire picture here. Completely blown out of proportion, not racist. She is attempting to make students realize that media can be instrumental in untruths.
Obviously I am unable to comment about the allegations that this particular teacher has any kind of history of racist behavior, but based on the information presented in this article, I simply cannot conclude that this assignment was racially motivated.
It seems to me that the teacher was simply trying an exercise in critical thinking. The argument could be made that the examples she cited are fresh wounds on this country and it might have been better to use less controversial topics.
That said, it is a common exercise in critical thinking to take a piece of information that is commonly accepted as true, then take the opposite point of view, research the claims made by the opposition and present them in a rational form. This kind of exercise is used across all academic disciplines because progress can never be made unless facts are challenged. Science would cease making advancements if nobody ever challenged the accepted world view.
I would also point out that frequently the result of these kinds of exercises is that the person researching the opposing view winds up with a stronger opinion of the original point of view because they have discovered just how absurd the opposition’s claims are. For instance, a person who believes that the Earth is a sphere, upon researching the claims made by Flat-Earthers may wind up coming out with an even stronger belief that the Earth is a sphere.
Based solely on the information presented in this article, the teacher was not presenting the claims of those who are critical of the Chauvin trial as facts, she was merely pointing out that these claims have been made which contradict either the verdict or the validity of the trial, she was trying to get the students to think critically about what opposing viewpoints had to say about the trial. Considering the sheer amount of evidence presented in the trial of Officer Chauvin, I don’t think any rational person sincerely believes that Chauvin is innocent of murder and I don’t think that this teacher was trying to convince her students that Chauvin was innocent. I think she just wanted the students to research what critics had to say and present their cases, because a true critical thinking person cannot reach a solid conclusion on any subject unless they understand all facets of an intellectual argument.
I firmly believe that skepticism and the dispassionate pursuit of knowledge are the cornerstones of an intellectual mind. If this teacher gets fired over this assignment, I believe it will be one of the most anti-educational moves the BOE could possibly take over what appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding. Teachers and professors that forced me to challenge my own beliefs were among the most significant educators in my own intellectual growth, I recognize their importance in my education even if I resented them for their seemingly adversarial nature at the time.
All of that being said, the examples given are too recent in the public’s mind and were probably in poor taste.
Critical thinking is essential in all facets of life. The teacher was not exhibiting racism. She was encouraging students to think.The media spins everything and attacks those who may have opposing views..Research, listen and compile all available information.Seems as though 1 person has taken a school assignment and then omitted words from the original.She/He ( those involved ) really didn’t care about the
( ACTUAL) truth with regards to words… They omitted any words that would clarify the assignment and they ran with the race card…It’s shameful. While
Some say the timing is poor.. WHY? Now is the time to address issues and current events.Our children should learn how to think critically, open their minds , make decisions and express and defend the reasons for their conclusions..Seems
As though 1 person decided that the truth doesn’t matter, they scream the race card and already the fodder starts..