Head of School Updates

Dear Berkeley Carroll Community,

Recent public expressions of antisemitic hate in our society are another painful reminder that we are living in times that regularly challenge us to affirm our core values and beliefs. Berkeley Carroll continues to denounce bias and oppression against all peoples. In the face of increasing antisemitic rhetoric and violence in this country, we express solidarity with Jewish people who are feeling fear, dismay, and anger as a result of bias and hatred that cannot be decoupled from the horrors of historic antisemitism.

Over the years, we have asserted that there is a through line connecting racism and brutality against Black people, Asian Americans, and other communities of color; violence and discrimination against members of LGBTQIA+ communities; and antisemitism and other forms of hate speech or violence based in religious and cultural animus.

Our message from June 2021 bears repeating:

…we have witnessed once more an eruption of incendiary rhetoric and violence in the form of antisemitic attacks on Jewish people and vandalism of synagogues. We have seen anti-Arab and Islamophobic assaults visited on individuals and spelled out on mosques. The anti-Blackness that informs killings of unarmed Black people in our streets and in their homes has continued as anti-Asian violence against individuals and businesses persists. These reprehensible attacks and the attitudes that feed them are both constant and cyclic, demanding that we work with vigilance and perseverance toward their eradication.

Berkeley Carroll’s antiracism efforts rest on the recognition, rejection, and repudiation of all forms of bias. We remain steadfast in teaching that discrimination against and targeting of people and communities because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and other identities diminishes our collective humanity and is cruel, destructive, and wrong. Our program and curriculum allow us to be both proactive and responsive to the needs of our students, colleagues, and families while also providing our community members with tools to better society. We look forward to continuing to partner with you in this work.

This will continue to be Berkeley Carroll’s stance regarding bias and bigotry whenever and wherever they present. As members of a robust and inclusive community, we must continually ask ourselves and each other how we intend to live together and how best to recognize and honor our identities and our interdependence. Our capacity to do more, and to do better, is strengthened when we work together to combat all forms of oppression wherever we find them. Berkeley Carroll is committed to nurturing an inclusive and equitable learning community that honors our shared humanity and the dignity of all.

Sincerely,
Lisa Yvette Waller, Ph.D.
Head of School

Brandie Melendez
Assistant Head of School for Professional Learning and Institutional Equity