Commentary: Contest, not CRT, is best way to assure Nazi-salute incident never happens again in Newport-Mesa

It’s been three years since our Newport-Mesa community woke up in shock to see newspapers and social media posting images of red cups forming a swastika with local youths raising hands in a Nazi salute.

How could our Newport-Mesa youth be so insensitive?

Are our tax-supported public-school teachers teaching about the horrors of the Holocaust?

After the incident, NMUSD officials convened a forum taking community input on how our teachers could better educate our students so an anti-Semitic event like this could never happen again.

They also created a Human Relations Task Force of community members to recommend Holocaust resources to the Board. The Orange County Human Relations facilitated the HRTF.

I attended many of the meetings. I strongly supported promotion of Chapman University’s annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest where high school and middle school students submit art, film, poetry or prose entries after listening to testimonies by Holocaust survivors.

I believe the Chapman contest is one of the best ways for students to understand the Holocaust.

In July 2019 the board approved an implementation plan presented by the HRTF which included the Chapman program and eight other projects most of which focused on Holocaust education.

However, the implementation plan also included the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) “Implicit Bias” teacher and student trainings and the UC Irvine Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Health High School Ambassador program for selected students.

After reviewing public records requests about the ADL and UCI programs, I along with others discovered that these sessions included teaching about the controversial Critical Race Theory.

No hard data justifying teaching the CRT was presented to the HRTF to justify the training.

Critical Race Theory is anathema to what Dr. Martin Luther King taught us. Dr. King said we must judge others by the content of character, not the color of their skin. We can agree with the concept of social justice for everyone, but CRT divides us instead of uniting us as human beings and focuses on group identity instead of individual identity.

There is rise of hatred against Jewish people across the globe. The horrific murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust should be taught instead of CRT. Students listening to stories from survivors about the Holocaust is the most powerful way to eliminate racial hatred. Critical Race Theory belongs in universities, not in NMUSD classrooms. It is Marxist at its core.

On March 11, I went to Chapman University to watch the 23rd annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest awards ceremony. My friend Barry Friedland has played for many years in the Klezmer band during the program. This year’s theme was “Turning Memory to Strength: Living with Courage, Resilience and Hope.”

Surprisingly only two NMUSD schools submitted entries.

My dad enlisted in the Army the day after he turned 18 in 1942. He was sent to Europe to fight against Hitler’s Nazi takeover of Europe but was injured on the battlefield in 1944 and hospitalized in the States. I remember seeing the scars on his back and on the back of his leg which caused him to limp. He died in 2003 with shrapnel still in his leg. I thank God for protecting my dad, or I would not be writing this to explain why we must teach more about the Holocaust and not divert class time to CRT indoctrination.

Why didn’t the district promote the Chapman program? Why were there not many more entries in Chapman contest from NMUSD students?

And why did the district instead promote staff and student trainings about CRT?

Recently the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District voted to approve a resolution that “will not include Critical Race Theory as a framework in any course offerings.”

Our school board should adopt a similar resolution.

Our community needs to pay attention to what is being taught in our classrooms and not sideline the very important lessons from the Holocaust.

Wendy Leece is a former NMUSD trustee (1994-02), a former Costa Mesa City Council member (2006-14), mother of 5 and Costa Mesa resident since 1972.

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