Ernesto Querijero (left), Jeff Gaynor (middle), and Torchio Feaster (right) listening to the public commentary during the Jan. 17, 2024 AAPS board meeting. Courtney Prielipp | Washtenaw Voice
Caleb Henderson
Editor
Jan. 17, 2024 was far from a normal board meeting for the Ann Arbor Public School (AAPS) system, and a groundbreaking one at that.
In the Pioneer High School auditorium, a resolution proposed by board member and WCC professor Ernesto Querijero was passed calling for a bilateral ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, marking one of the first times a local school board has passed such a measure.
“Although [the war] is happening thousands of miles away, it does have deep roots in our community,” Querijero said, when asked about why he proposed the resolution in an interview with the Washtenaw Voice.
The resolution stems from an incident that happened last month involving a student of Muslim and Palestinian religion/ethnicity at Tappan Middle School allegedly being called a “terrorist” by a counselor, sparking nationwide outrage and a complaint filed by the Council on American Islamic Relations Michigan Chapter (CAIR-MI) as a result.
The resolution also seeks to deter “the rise of hate speech, including anti-Arab racism, anti-Jewish racism, anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism, in discourse surrounding the conflict [that] is contrary to the values of the Ann Arbor School District,” reads the official document.
Last month, the resolution was initially drafted by the student’s cousin, 16-year-old Pioneer High School student Malek Farha, and proposed to the board by Querijero with support from fellow board member Jeff Gaynor.
The board voted on the resolution, with four in favor, one opposed and two abstaining. Leading up to the vote, there was debate on when to vote on the resolution, with board member Susan Baskett proposing a motion to remove the resolution from the agenda.
Board majority opposed the motion, with Jeff Gaynor, Krystle DuPree, Rima Mohammad, and Ernesto Querijero all voting to pass the original resolution proposed, Susan Baskett voting to oppose the resolution, and Susan Schmidt plus Torchio Feaster voting to abstain.
That’s not to say the resolution didn’t cause controversy though, with over 120 members offering public comments on the board’s unprecedented actions and opinions being divided across the board.
“As an elected board that purports to represent the diverse constituents [of Ann Arbor], it is inappropriate for you to take a public stance on this deeply divisive issue,” said Sonya Lewis, a public commenter at the board meeting.
Querijero, on the other hand, sees things a little differently.
“Letting people know that they are seen so far away, to me, is one of the best educational values you can deliver,” he said of the decision to weigh in on an international conflict.
As of Jan. 26, at least 26,083 people have been killed in Gaza as well as 1,139 in Israel since the war began, according to Al Jazeera reports.
Jackie Heymann, a Jewish resident of Ann Arbor planning to send her kids to AAPS in the future, shared a similar sentiment during public commentary.
“I can only imagine how powerful and transformative it would be for the Ann Arbor Public Schools students to have the opportunity to learn with and from their classmates about Israel-Palestine and hope they begin learning far earlier than I did in college,” Heymann said.
Ann Arbor City Council and Washtenaw County also recently passed their own similar resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, showing a growing trend of not just international, but local governments calling for peace in the Middle East.
“Those who were critiquing or criticizing our purview to make a statement like this, a lot of their argument was ‘nobody cares the statement that you make over there’. I think the response in the media shows that people actually do care,” said Querijero.
