They Say They're Going to Bomb my School
Stochastic terrorism has come to the place I called home from grades 6-12
Late last week my friend and former classmate Leila Brillson brought to my attention that our old stomping grounds, the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, has been targeted by one of these twitter finger fascist groups. She’s written a great piece on it all.
Make sure to read it, now, before reading the rest of this column. They evidently secretly taped Parker’s Dean Joseph Bruno discussing the school’s queer-friendly sexual education program and community outreach.
Bruno’s discussion of the school’s curricula and community events was meant to be seen as outrageous to the reactionary group’s audience. I was proud to hear what my school is doing.
The school board needs to stand by the administration, its faculty, staff, and curricula. Not just because it sounds thoughtful, humane, and good, but because backing down to fascists isn’t acceptable.
After watching the video of Dean Bruno I tweeted out my support for him and the school. Immediately after that I began receiving death threats.
Being a journalist for the past decade and a half, those aren’t new, and I’m well-situated to deal with them from my vantage point. Others may not be, and it’s a terrifying time for them.
Shortly after the video came out Bruno was verbally accosted by another reactionary pundit outside of the school. Today the school was evacuated after it reported a bomb threat was called in.
For much of its long history Parker may have found itself relatively insulated from the outside world as it pursues a progressive manner of educating its students. The pedagogy has often been admiringly progressive at Parker over the 120 some odd years it has been operation, but as a small private school with some of the wealthiest people in the world among its families the school has largely been able to do things as it sees fit inside its walls, with a mountain of accomplished alumni (this writer notwithstanding) to show for it.
In today’s world no one is beyond the harassing digital reach of fascist organizations fighting a reactionary culture war against the enfranchisement of marginalized groups. If only their presence were digital.
In fact, groups like these are engaged in stochastic terrorism. This is no exaggeration as they’ve already successfully endangered families, children, hospitals, and schools for the perceived crimes of providing healthcare to women and educating kids.
Now, my school is in their crosshairs. It makes perfect sense - Parker is everything these groups claim to hate and find as useful foils.
The school devotes a lot of money to educating children (gasp), it has a lot of Jewish people in it (uh oh…), it believes education is about more than training kids to obey authority and instead teaches history critically and prepares students to speak out and take active roles in democratic society. Back when I attended Parker the school was progressive enough to have me and other student government representatives sit in on board of trustees meetings.
The Board President at the time even went out of his way to keep me abreast of major developments outside of those meetings, such was the board's commitment to empowering students so we learned democracy by practicing it. I trust that the board, all these decades later, is only strengthening their progressivism & will stand by their excellent educators, their curricula, and events, and not bat an eye at the intimidation tactics of fascistic groups like libs of tik tok whose transparent and reprehensible attempts to endanger healthcare providers, teachers, parents, and children is well-documented.
Their recent video only offends bigots. I was proud to hear Mr. Bruno's explanation of the sex education and community events Parker has been instituting.
Mountains of scientific evidence shows us the importance of sex education for school kids to keep them protected, safe, and feeling supported and equipped to deal with difficult situations. That is to say good schools teach sex ed.
So, why should sex ed assume hetero normative standards? Why shouldnt kids be taught that queerness is nothing to be ashamed of or to fear, and what more fun, engaging way to do that then to have drag artists come in and meet the families?
Progressive education needs to be fought for in these scary times, and I count on the Parker administration and board of trustees to do exactly that by continuing their good work.
That this good work can no longer be practiced in relative obscurity only underscores its importance in the moment. They’re sending us death threats.
They’re threatening to bomb the school. They’re doing this because the school is teaching sex-ed and telling students that queer people are people.
Backing down isn’t an option when they come for our children. Parker is in the rare position to not need anything from anyone.
It has its own money, its own land, and a population of families who send their children to Parker precisely because it does things that scandalizes fascists. There is no need for Parker to back down, and so long as it does not I will continue to proudly support it.