A school board debate over Lower Merion’s equity policy led to ‘antisemitic statements and racist implications.’ The backlash continues.

Discussion over a relatively minor edit in the Lower Merion School District’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policy has ignited into a heated debate over racism, antisemitism, and the intent of DEI.

A crowd that included many Jewish and Black parents packed Monday’s school board meeting to weigh in on a conversation that started two weeks ago at a policy meeting attended by a small group of residents.

The committee was discussing edits to bring the equity policy into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year striking down affirmative action, but the discussion took a turn when one board member, Abby Lerner Rubin, said she felt the six-page policy was exclusionary.

As the committee debated the policy’s goals, board members Kimberly Garrison and Anna Shurak pressed Rubin to say who was excluded; the policy describes a commitment to eliminating barriers on behalf of students who “may have historically experienced opportunity or achievement gaps” due to numerous factors, among them race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion.

Rubin, who is Jewish, responded by questioning how the district would decide which identities would be protected under the policy — noting concerns that antisemitism “is back.”

Later, she objected to language authorizing the superintendent to develop rules aimed at “meeting the needs of those historically marginalized individuals.”

“I would like it to say ‘all,’” Rubin said. While “I understand why we need to acknowledge historic discriminations … the idea that it’s not for all is where I get a little bit uncomfortable.”

Garrison — who is Black and said that “racism and antiblackness has always been in fashion” — said that she “totally disagreed” with Rubin’s perspective. “I know quite a bit about Jewish history,” she said. “There was a time before Jewish people decided that they were going to join the group of white people …”

Rubin immediately asked Garrison to “take that statement back. It’s not really true.”

“It is really true,” Garrison said, citing Pew research that the vast majority of American Jews identify as white. She noted that “the Irish at one point were considered an other … but eventually everyone who’s of Western European descent, that’s what they’re in.”

Shurak, meanwhile, drew a distinction between antisemitism and structural racism, saying that her being Jewish hadn’t precluded her from experiencing white privilege. She noted persistent achievement gaps facing students of color, and said that “the point is, as a white person, no one can immediately discriminate against you for being Jewish.”

The conversation immediately drew pushback from the few people in attendance at the Sept. 6 meeting, with some Jewish parents there saying they were horrified by Garrison’s comments. As one questioned whether Garrison was saying all Jews came from Europe, Garrison interjected: “I realize there are also Sephardic Jewish people. There are also Ethiopian Jewish people.”

Another parent objected to the policy, saying it seemed as if it was written specifically to benefit Black students.

The unrest was apparent at Monday’s school board meeting, which began with board president Kerry Sautner — who had sent a message to the community last week acknowledging “antisemitic statements and racist implications” during the committee meeting — telling the crowd she was “sincerely apologizing for the lack of leadership that resulted in the committee meeting a week ago.”

“We will review what led to these mistakes, and not let this happen again,” Sautner said, adding that the board had scheduled trainings on antisemitism and racism.

As board members individually addressed the room, Garrison said she was “not antisemitic” but had “made objective statements about the demographic population of the United States.”

Since her remarks, Garrison said, people have been harassing her online, posting 20-year-old photos of her and her husband. “This is classic antiblackness and racism in action,” Garrison said, saying that Shurak had not faced similar criticism.

Garrison said she researches every policy brought before her and “should not be sacrificed in favor of board members who do not. … Nor should I have to succumb to a public witch hunt brought about by people who take exception to the truth.”

Angry community members confronted Garrison during public comment, saying she should have apologized rather than doubling down on remarks they said ignored discrimination and historical persecution faced by Jews. Some also said they had Yemeni and Tunisian ancestry and didn’t view themselves as fitting a particular racial box.

“I would never dare to tell you anything about your history as a Black person,” Karen Averill said. “To use your Blackness to say ‘I didn’t say anything wrong,’ to me, it’s sad.”

Beth Samberg, a mother with two students in the district, said her children were afraid they would be targeted for being Jewish. In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, she said, her daughter wore a sweatshirt to school that said, “I am Jewish and I am scared,” and the only adult who commented on it and “tried to make her feel safe” was the janitor.

While Garrison’s comments “do not directly put our children at risk, it’s comments like these and lack of knowledge that do,” Samberg said.

David Caroline asked Garrison what she was “modeling for our children by refusing to listen to the hurt of other people.”

He also asked her to listen to concerns about the district’s equity policy, saying that while “DEI, equity, is doing amazing things for people,” in certain places, “DEI … has unwittingly become the vehicle for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric and actions.”

Others — including community advocates and Black parents — pleaded with the board to not let the dispute derail its equity work. Alex Tavangar, vice chair of the NAACP Main Line Branch, presented the board with a plan to remedy educational disparities in the district. He said that while Black students make up 9% of Lower Merion’s student body, they account for more than 30% of students classified with learning disabilities; only 45% of Black third through eighth graders in the district score proficient in math, he said.

“This journey is nowhere near its completion,” Tavangar said.

Parent Nigeria James, who is Black, said that when she moved to Lower Merion from Los Angeles 10 years ago, she was warned about the achievement gap.

A decade later, with a child in college and another who will be graduating from Lower Merion in June, “I cannot say that the achievement gap has really changed,” James said. Despite her providing resources to her children, they “almost slipped through the cracks. And so many Black kids are. The district knows it, and I don’t know why we are still having the same issue.”

Some said the objections to the equity policy were negating the specific legacy of discrimination faced by Black students. Regine St. Germain called Rubin’s suggestion to replace “historically marginalized” with “all” individuals “akin to someone responding, ‘All Lives Matter,’ when someone says ‘Black Lives Matter.’”

The board ultimately approved the policy, though after extensive debate about whether to maintain a list of glossary terms, like “implicit bias” and “microaggression.” Some parents criticized the list for not mentioning “ethnoreligion,” though “religion” is listed in the policy as a factor that could be a cause of opportunity or achievement gaps.

Not all of the terms in the glossary appear in the policy language; Sautner expressed concern Lower Merion would be open to lawsuits. Some other board members questioned whether removing the terms would make the policy’s intent less clear.

The board decided to review the glossary terms at another policy committee meeting. “We do not want Lower Merion to be a centerpiece of national discussion,” Sautner said.