The Burnaby School District issued an apology and announced that it is “taking immediate action” after finding out that a Grade 6 class was asked to debate whether or not Israel should exist.
The board was alerted over the weekend after a parent of one student emailed a picture of the exam question to the school district.
The social studies quiz asked students to argue for the state of Israel’s existence and give the opposing argument for why it should not exist.
“Some believe the Jewish people deserve or need a homeland, Israel, while others believe that Israel should not exist,” the preamble to the question said before asking students to provide arguments for both.
The teacher said that the answer wasn’t intended to reflect the students’ opinions but was for students to show that they understood the arguments made by opposing perspectives.
B.C Conservative leader John Rustad blamed B.C. NDP Premier David Eby for what he called the “radicalization and indoctrination” happening in the province’s schools.
“In B.C.’s schools, 12-year-old kids are being asked to write about why ‘Israel should not exist,’” Rustad said. “This is not a normal thing to teach 12-year-olds.”
“Regardless of intention, the question is deeply concerning and could be trauma-inducing for students, and particularly Jewish children,” Superintendent Karim Hachlaf said in a statement on behalf of the school district. “I am grateful to the family of one of the students in the class for raising this. On behalf of the Burnaby School District, I apologize. As a district, we are taking steps to address the harm.”
The school board said it would move “swiftly” to address the issue.
It promised to launch an investigation into the incident and offer support to the class and anyone who might have been offended by the question.
The statement said the district would contact Jewish community organizations to determine “additional care and supports that might be of benefit” and work with administrators from kindergarten to Grade 12 across the district to “reinforce the use of appropriate learning resources” in its schools.
David Jacobs, a Toronto physician with a large social media following, posted about the issue online. He said there was another incident from an unnamed B.C. school that was given to Grade 6 students, which raised similar concerns for him.
Just days after the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, students were given a map of Israel-Palestine, which read “mapping Israeli occupation.”
“According to Human Rights Watch, Israel – which calls itself a Jewish state – is committing ‘crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution’ against Palestinians,” the resource said.
The page was sourced from Qatar’s news organization Al Jazeera, which Israel has since banned after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “terrorist channel.”
“Here’s another ‘assignment’ from a BC public school given to 12-year-olds on Oct. 10,” Jacobs said on X. “This was their first day back after the Oct. 7 massacre.”
He said the student’s parents complained to their MLAs and even spoke to the premier in March.
True North contacted the B.C. minister of education and Eby for comment but did not receive a response by the deadline.
