Community members made their voices heard at the Campbell Union High School District board meeting last night, expressing support for the Jewish community and sharing a broad range of opinions about next steps.

After a suggestion from student trustee Aiden Jeong, the board extended the time for public comments beyond 20 minutes, allowing 23 people to speak for three minutes each.   

Parents, teachers, students and community members spoke, all condemning the Nazi swastika post last week and calling for more education.

Several people expressed concerns about Branham and the district’s decision to partner with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC) and Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). 

One Jewish woman called those organizations explicitly Zionist and said she would not be welcome there, asking the district to work with groups that do not use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s antisemitism definition. A Palestinian mother and a Los Altos parent also warned about BAJC and ADL.

They recommended PARCEO’s Curriculum on Antisemitism from a Framework of Collective Liberation.

Many people brought up punishments, asking about the restorative justice process or calling for stricter punishments including expulsion.

Laurel Garceau, the Campbell High School Teachers Association (CHTSA) Executive Secretary, expressed support for the Jewish community after public comments. 

After Garceau spoke, Superintendent Robert Bravo gave a statement.

“Freedom of speech doesn’t protect a hate act — in my opinion, that’s what that posting was,” Bravo said, acknowledging comments about going beyond discipline. “We have to use the incident as an opportunity to deepen education around antisemitism, hate symbols, historical atrocities associated with them, and really ensure that our schools are safe places for everyone.”

In the middle of his statement, Bravo played a video titled “Impact Over Intention,” which was created by Branham staff and initially shown to students during first period on Thursday.

During an intermission, Garceau said she hopes to create similar videos inspired by that video in the district’s four other schools. 

“When we watched the video, we thought, ‘Wow, that was amazing.’ We want to get the script for that and see if we can make our own videos at each site and show that to all the sites because all students need that message,” Garceau said.

Bravo continued his statement and said he is “totally aligned with Principal Silbergeld and her approach,” commending her “strong leadership.” He ended his statement by acknowledging the public comments.

“We’re not perfect,” Bravo said. “We have things we need to work on, things we need to improve, but I want to reiterate that I heard what you heard tonight, and we’re very much on the same page.”

The full board meeting is available to watch through the CUHSD website.