St. Louis Park High School officials and student yearbook staff apologized for an entry in Echowan, the school’s yearbook, for a news entry that called out Israel for declaring war on Hamas on Oct. 8, without mention of the attack the preceding day.
The yearbook includes a couple of notable news items for each month of the school year. The first entry for October reads: “On October 8, 2023, Israel formally declared war on Hamas. The death toll reached about 1,100 on both sides, and Israel increased airstrikes on Gaza.”
SLPHS Principal LaNisha Paddock emailed the apologies to high school families Wednesday evening.
“We are writing to address a serious issue that has come to our attention regarding the recent publication of our school yearbook. There was misinformation in the current events section that caused harm, particularly to our Jewish families within the school community. This is unacceptable,” the email said. “We understand that publishing inaccurate and incomplete information is both traumatizing and hurtful. As a human and the principal for St. Louis Park High School, I feel devastated that this situation has caused distress to our school community.”
Yearbook distribution began on May 21 at the school, and dozens of families notified Paddock later that day. One email shared with TC Jewfolk told Paddock that it was a “very one-sided, triggering narrative.”
A St. Louis Park Jewish families WhatsApp group said it would be akin to the 1942 yearbook said: “On December 8th, the U.S. declared war on Japan and thousands were killed on both sides,” while not acknowledging the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In the email, Paddock said the yearbook intends to honor all students, but acknowledged the school fell short of the goal.
“The inaccuracies in the yearbook do not reflect the values of inclusivity and respect that we strive to uphold,” Paddock wrote.
The Echowan is a student-led publication, although has two staff advisors, listed in the yearbook as Kelsey Hanson and Anthony Vandeneinde. “As a school district, we take responsibility for the lack of a substantial review process,” Paddock wrote.
The apology from the student yearbook staff said: “The statement for the Israel-Hamas conflict in October contains misleading information and an unfortunate omission.
“We overlooked the inclusion of the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7. This omission was unintentional, and we are deeply apologetic about our ignorance in not including this day in the yearbook. This mistake is fully ours, and we understand that leaving out this day erased the lived experience of many of our students, families, and community members.
“We understand that this apology will not undo the harm and trauma that we caused. As a student-run organization, we are learning from and reflecting on our mistake to ensure it doesn’t happen again. In the future, we will implement a better proofing process that includes intentional consideration of the many perspectives of our student population.”
In a statement from Sami Rahamim, the director of communications and community affairs at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas said: “Like so many in our community, we were appalled to read that the SLP Echowan flagrantly distorted October 7 into a propaganda version of history where “Israel formally declared war on Hamas” – versus the truth about that day, which is the inverse.
“JCRC is working closely with SLP families and administrators to address this obscene error and repair the harm.“
Paddock’s letter said that high school and district administration will be meeting with the JCRC on Thursday to better understand impact and discuss how to repair harm.
“No one we’re talking to in leadership thinks this was okay. No one thinks that the right review processes were in place. And we have to figure that out,” said Ben Schein, a Jewish parent in St. Louis Park who has been part of ongoing conversations with district leadership since the Oct. 7 attacks.
Non-Jewish parents are also disappointed in the school. The Rev. Danielle Jones, the mother of an SLPHS student, said that to call the incident unfortunate doesn’t begin to cover it.
“I think telling just a sliver of the story of what is happening perpetuates all the things that I think we’re all worried about in the world, like fake news and not getting grounded in the truth,” she said. “I know from my friends who are Jewish, that this is a time where there’s a lot of fear, because of stories that are half-truths and things that are being activated, as they always have been, in antisemitic ways. My heart just dropped.”
The lack of oversight or editing was concerning to Jones.
“High schoolers are for sure emerging adults, but they are not there yet,” she said. “And the whole purpose of the yearbook staff is to teach students how to tell stories that are correct and true, and that certainly isn’t.”
“ Omission “ is exactly what the world has been using in accusing Israel of a war on Gaza and its population while “ omitting “ the facts of what Hamas did on Oct. 7, 2023, “ omitting “ how Hamas uses the innocent part of the population as human shields, how they have taken food deliveries meant for the innocent adults & children, how Hamas has used Israeli donations of cement to rebuild to build their massive underground tunnels and on & on & on. Aren’t there any editors or adult advisors that look over the copy of the EchoWAN BEFORE EACH SECTION GOES TO THE PRINTER?!?!
This is an inexcusable mistake, not an omission!!!!!
The statement published in the yearbook wasn’t omitting anything.
It was distorting facts, and in doing so, distorting history.
It’s like saying that the US declared war on al-Qaeda on September 12th, 2001, and that there are over 3,000 casualties on both sides.
That statement would never fly because it’s a sickening distortion of facts.
All the yearbooks have to be recalled. Every single one.
And either reprinted or a corrective stocker placed on their mistake.
Anything short of that, and SLP would be responsible for any hate crime, because that’s what their “mistake” would lead to.
The statement isn’t an omission; it is a hurtful misstatement of the facts. The student who wrote this has it wrong and the yearbook staff did not do their job.
Hopefully the student was simply misinformed and too lazy to check facts.
No matter what “fix” the school comes up with there will be copies out there that contain this misinformation.
People look at their yearbooks on happy occasions that include sharing their memories with younger generations. The faleshoodwill be perpetuated. That is very sad.
I can only hope the students, staff and whoever else was involved with this “mistake” learns from it.
SLP high school students, staff and advisors need to see the videos of the Hamas terrors of October 7th and learn what happened .
All yearbooks should be returned and corrected, at the cost of the two adult advisers that did not teach and find a way to guide students.
Stickers are not enough, we must stand up …. Never AGAIN!!!!!
In my opinion the yearbooks need to be collected, (each and every one) corrected and reprinted at the schools expense. The teachers overseeing the yearbook should be fired.
I am so ashamed at my Alma mater. I can only imagine the hard hearts of the students who wrote that and the advisors who let it pass. I will never again sing “we are loyal to you Park High” unless the yearbooks are recalled and rewritten
Absolutely unacceptable and disgusting. The people who wrote this believe the statement be true…totally misinformed.
The yearbook advisors and administration are equally responsible and should be held accountable.
The yearbooks need to be destroyed and new ones issued at the district’s expense. The adults who supervised the students and approved the copy must not be permitted to continue in this capacity. They should be suspended if not fired.
As a St Louis Park High School graduate, I am appalled at the actions of the students involved and of their advisors. This twisting of history already in the hands of students should not have happened at such a school. Recall and destroy each and every yearbook, and replace them with an updated version paid for by the yearbook advisors or the district. A formal apology should be made not only to Jewish students, but to all students, faculty, and staff,
My brothers and I, baby boomers all, are proud graduates of St. Louis Park High School, from 1967 to 1977. Clearly, nobody edited the Echowan. My kids and their friends love looking through my yearbooks. Please, recall all of the yearbooks and reprint them.
Dear St. Louis Park high school staff:
I have corresponded with Dr. Patrick Duffy since our initial meeting on May 31st. He was professional, yet attentive and empathetic to my outrage of the yearbook entry that caused quite a stir as you are all aware.
We agreed that this entry made its way, indelibly, into the pages of the 2024 St. Louis Park Echowan yearbook without a hint of awareness from the students and staff involved, of the incendiary nature of the statement and its impact to the Jewish community. The insertion of the statement promoted a false narrative on the part of the student writers and their adult supervisors.
Imagine an entry reading: “On May 26, 2020, Blacks riot in Minneapolis resulting in $500 million in damage” – not putting into context the death of George Floyd the day before.
Writing “the death toll reached about 1,100 on both sides” was not only grossly out of context and misleading, but it was reckless and lazy. It is undefined what numbers on each side were killed and how many of those killed were Hamas terrorists.
Apparently, the students and the adult staff either weren’t aware or didn’t consider the barbaric and unspeakable horror the terrorist Hamas monsters inflicted on innocent (mostly) Israeli and foreign civilians the day before, leading to more than 1,200 murders and the kidnapping of 252 people. I strongly suggested to Dr. Duffy that the adult staff that oversaw the editing of the 2024 yearbook, Kelsey Hanson and Anthony Vandeneinde, should be removed from ever holding that position again.
As of today, following the recent Israeli Defense Force’s heroic rescue of four hostages,120 innocent souls are still being held captive (116 plus four taken hostage in 2014 and 2015). The remaining hostages are being subjected to unspeakable horrors, based on accounts from those that have been released. Israel continues to fight a war on multiple fronts against Iran and its proxies who use innocent civilians as human shields.
While a letter of apology for the “unacceptable” yearbook entry was delivered to the public on May 24th, graduation already took place on June 4th with no insert clarifying this outrageous post for students to slip into their yearbooks.
Of most concern in my meeting with Dr. Duffy, I was told that due to the 300 plus pages of the yearbook, they could not thoroughly edit the contents. This begs the question as to what type of oversight the board of education and schools have over the written material that is disseminated throughout the school system. This is potentially emblematic of a more systematic problem.
I recommended that a start to rectify this lack of oversight would be to leverage the extensive talent that is available within the Jewish community. There are Talmudic and Rabbinic scholars right within our community. This basic step could quite possibly foster critical thinking, something that is sorely lacking among students as well as adult staff.
With permission from the following individuals, I would encourage your administration to reach out to the Rabbis in our community not to write any curriculum but at the very least, they should be consulted on content that pertains to Israel and/or Judaism.
List given…..
Sincerely,
Blair Jonas