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Decrying what it describes as censorship of classroom protest, the Portland teachers’ union has escalated its rhetoric in support of Palestine, distributing an instructional handbook that’s become a flashpoint in the fraught local debate over the Israel-Hamas War.
The Portland Association of Teachers last week co-published a handbook “for asserting educators’ rights to teach about and advocate for the liberation of Palestine and Palestinians.” That handbook, titled “Teaching and Organizing for Palestine Within Portland Public Schools,” asserts that Portland Public Schools has censored and harassed teachers and students who advocated for Palestine on school grounds. The handbook now sits on the union website’s homepage.
PAT, which represents more than 4,500 educators in the Portland Public Schools system, wrote that the handbook was “developed in response to the censorship, discrimination, and harassment that many PPS education workers have experienced and are currently experiencing at the hands of PPS District ‘leadership.’”
The union’s advocacy for Palestine dates back to at least December. Fresh off the 15-day strike that laid bare hostilities between the union and the school district, the union displayed support for Palestine by advertising cease-fire marches and a “Palestine 101″ panel discussion on its Facebook page.
But the handbook, which appears to have been circulated on May 28, marks a new level in the union’s advocacy for Palestine.
The handbook lists alleged instances of school leadership allowing harassment and censorship of pro-Palestinian efforts by teachers and students. The list includes:
“Censoring student work on the topics of Settler Colonialism and Zionism,” “Censoring teachers’ ‘political’ posters, including any language with the word ‘cease-fire,’” “Administrators warning teachers to ‘watch their backs’ due to relentless complaints and harassment by Zionist parents and community members,” and “Allowing Zionist parents and community members to harass, watch, and record pro-Palestinian student activities on PPS school property.”
District spokeswoman Valerie Feder said in a statement that PPS “is committed to fostering an environment in all our schools and classrooms where every student feels safe, supported, and valued.”
“It is our expectation that staff create these spaces by facilitating respectful, age-appropriate, and standards-based learning and contextualization of major world events, such as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war or, before that, the war in Ukraine,” Feder said. “When these expectations of staff are not met—such as when a teacher engages in political advocacy while working—our process is to talk with the teacher about our expectations and direct corrections, removal, or replacement of inappropriate content.”
Feder did not respond to the union’s allegations that the district censored free speech.
Bob Horenstein, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Portland, says the union’s actions follow a recent dispute at Grant High School, in which the teacher of a freshman history course used PAT materials in the classroom, and students then posted anti-Zionist posters on a bulletin board. On three occasions, Horenstein says, the district ordered posters and protest signs removed from Grant property.
Horenstein says the handbook that PAT is now distributing reads less like educational material and more like political agitprop.
“This is propaganda,” Horenstein says. “If this were used in the classroom, it could potentially make a Jewish student feel unsafe.”
In December, after WW first reported on PAT’s advocacy for Palestine, union president Angela Bonilla agreed to a meeting with the Jewish Federation of Portland. Horenstein says that meeting occurred Dec. 21.
“She has heard from numerous Jewish teachers and students,” he tells WW. “Our concerns have been ignored. She came to our offices, she took a lot of notes. And in the end, nothing changed.”
In a statement to WW, Bonilla says the union “is a diverse organization that values multiple and varied thoughts, perspectives, and beliefs of our members. Like many other labor organizations, PAT has a history of speaking out against injustices taking place both locally and globally. We are a union deeply committed to social justice, and to fighting for schools and communities that are free from antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination. And we will continue to ensure our members are aware of their rights when they are teaching about polarizing topics like the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
The handbook arrived after hostilities over the Israel-Hamas War paralyzed college campuses across the country, including in Portland, where activists seized and vandalized the Portland State University library, and a Jewish student left Reed College after someone threw a rock that hit her in the head.
The 32-page handbook appears to have been first published May 28 in conjunction with an event last Tuesday evening, co-hosted by PAT and Oregon Educators for Palestine, at the PAT Hall in Northeast Portland. Social media posts from Oregon Educators for Palestine about the event call it an information session about “your rights to teach and advocate for Palestine within Portland Public Schools.” The post also told attendees they would leave with “curriculum to Teach Palestine by grade level and subject,” which the group linked to, among other pro-Palestinian educational materials.
The handbook itself instructs teachers on how teaching pro-Palestinian materials and lesson plans fits into the union’s contract with the school district. The handbook makes the case that such lesson plans are allowed under contract language.
“Essentially, if your curriculum can be reasonably connected to Palestine, or an aspect related to otherwise ‘controversial’ teaching, you are protected,” the handbook reads. “Teaching about Palestine is also protected under Oregon’s Ethnic Studies Standards.”
“When students ask your opinion: Root your answer in facts and ask them more questions to help them develop their own opinions,” the handbook reads in one section. “Remind them that what we are seeing is not a long-standing hostility between Jewish and Arab or Muslim people. Palestinian resistance is a political struggle for self-determination against colonial and apartheid rule that has roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
It also instructs teachers how to file a grievance if they feel censored or harrassed and points them to various legal advice resources.
The handbook in its final slides offers teachers additional reading materials and resources. Among them: a handbook titled “Toolkit to Defend K-12 Educators and Librarians Against False Accusations of Antisemitism” and “Genocide Education in Portland Public Schools: A Timeline from 2019–Present.”