Professor Threatens Children of Pro-Israel Journalists With Violence

Another day, another member of our esteemed intellectual elite goes on an unhinged rant about Israel and Jews.

This time it was Jemma Decristo, a transgender African American Studies professor at the University of California at Davis, who decided to take to social media and advocate for violently attacking neighbors.

Decristo’s post on Oct. 10 was even more deranged than the Cornell professor who earlier this week said that he felt “exhilarated” by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

Here’s what Decristo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter:

“one group of ppl we have easy access to in the US is all these zionist journalists who spread propaganda & misinformation they have houses w addresses, kids in school they can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more.”

That was followed by a knife, an ax, and several blood emojis.

Decristo had a few other unhinged follow-up posts as well.

Decristo’s X account has since been privatized.

There’s a lot to break down here.

First, how is it that a professor at a prestigious university writes with such atrocious spelling and grammar? The post reads like the poorly written ravings of a random lunatic on a fetid Reddit forum. Standards in higher education have apparently fallen so far that professors, let alone students, struggle to write at a high school level.

Second, there’s the question of what UC Davis is going to do about one of its faculty members calling for violence and targeting not just people who disagree, but their children, too.

One would think the school should take action to ensure members of the community are safe.

The school is so worried about making UC Davis an “inclusive” and welcoming environment that it has an entire guide for teachers and students to avoid microaggressions. Surely, calling for a knife or ax to be plunged into a member of the community is just a bit out of bounds, right?

UC Davis Chancellor Gary May put out a statement condemning violence.

“I absolutely condemn the posts attributed to a UC Davis faculty member that recently appeared on the social media platform X. I find the comments revolting in every way, and I disagree wholeheartedly with them,” May wrote., adding:

UC Davis rejects all forms of violence and discrimination, as they are antithetical to the values of our university. We strive to foster a climate of equity and justice built on mutual understanding and respect for all members of the community.

I’d add here that UC Davis isn’t really against all forms of discrimination as May suggests. The school has committed itself to widespread “anti-racism” actions based on the ideology of left-wing author-activist Ibram X. Kendi, among others.

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination,” Kendi wrote in his book “How to Be an Antiracist.”

A quibble, perhaps, but it needed to be said.

As to what would be done about the offending professor, May refused to commit to anything and called it essentially a private matter at the public school.

“The University of California system has specific procedures for the review of complaints of faculty misconduct consistent with universitywide policies and bylaws,” he said. “The status of complaints lodged against faculty members are confidential personnel matters, so we are unable to publicly comment on the steps we are taking.”

The Daily Signal reached out to UC Davis for further comment, but it had not responded as of publication time.

This episode at my alma mater is just one of many that has exposed the pervasive rot inside our institutions of higher education. Most Americans were rightly horrified by the Hamas terrorist attacks and support Israel.

That’s apparently not the case in academia, however.

There appears to be more terrorist-supporting fanatics and antisemites at these self-styled proud bastions of tolerance and diversity than at a Ku Klux Klan rally.

Institutions that have been most relentless in condemning America for its alleged past sins have been exposed as dens of genocidal hate.

At George Washington University, for example, the Colonials mascot was removed, supposedly for being “offensive.” The Washington, D.C., school said that it wasn’t a unifying symbol for the institution. Yet, one of its professors, Lara Sheehi, went on several pro-Hamas tirades after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. On social media, she reportedly praised a statement critical of “anyone condemning the Palestinians’ armed resistance.”

Colonizing is bad and offensive, but “decolonizing” through threats, terrorism, and torture is apparently a reasonable position to hold at our elite schools.

Maybe we should stop giving higher education a blank check to promote such values to the next generation of American elites.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/20/uc-davis-professor-suggests-targeting-children-of-pro-israel-journalists-with-violence

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Israeli Jewish Student Attacked at Columbia University Amid Pro-Palestine Protests

Columbia University has tightened access to campus beginning Thursday amid news that a Jewish student was attacked on campus by an allegedly pro-Palestine student.

The New York Police Department confirmed to The Daily Signal on Thursday that officers responded to an assault on Wednesday around 6:10 p.m. in front of 600 West 116th Street.

Upon arrival, officers were informed that the victim, a 24-year-old male, “was engaged in a dispute with an unknown individual,” the police statement said. “The dispute became physical and the individual struck the victim in the hand with a wooden stick.”

Police arrested 19-year-old Maxwell Friedman, a young woman. The statement also said that the victim refused medical attention on scene.

According to the Columbia Spectator, the victim is a 24-year-old Israeli School of General Studies student. That student spoke with the Columbia Spectator on condition of anonymity citing fears for his safety, and the publication identified him as “I.A.”

The publication reported that earlier in the day, “the suspect approached him and other students who were in Uris Hall putting up posters with names and photos of Israelis that Hamas has reportedly taken as hostages.”

The friend said the suspect asked to join them, telling the students she was Jewish. Throughout the morning, the suspect continued to stay with the group, I.A. said.

Around 5:30 p.m., I.A. said he was outside Butler with four other friends and noticed the suspect, now with a bandana covering her face, ripping the flyers off the wall.

When they approached her, I.A. said the suspect screamed obscenities toward the students and hit I.A. with a stick. I.A. said he defended himself when the suspect allegedly tried to punch him in the face. After the incident, I.A. said that one hand was bruised and his ring finger on the other hand was broken.

The group of students went to Columbia Public Safety, who contacted the NYPD, I.A. said.

The student told the Columbia Spectator that the suspect attacked him because he is Jewish.

“This is because me being an Israeli these days. Not me because being myself,” he said. “It is because me being an Israeli who is under a certain kind of threat.”

In a late Wednesday statement, Columbia University Executive Vice President David Greenberg noted that “as a follow up to the Provost’s email earlier today related to safety and free expression on campus, beginning at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow (October 12) access to the Morningside campus will be open to valid Columbia University ID holders only.”

“This condition is in place to help maintain safety and a sense of community through planned demonstration activities,” he said.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal. At 4:30pm on Thursday, the campus Students for Justice in Palestine group plans to hold a “Call to Action for Palestine” event where they intend to pressure Columbia to meet their demands for Palestine.

The student pro-Palestine group has expressed solidarity with the attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/12/columbia-tightens-campus-access-following-attack-jewish-student-pro-palestine-protests

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Education boss calls for doubling down on explicit teaching in Australian schools

The head of the NSW public education system has called on schools to double down on the use of explicit instruction – a teaching method that gives students step-by-step and clear instructions – in a bid to boost results and close the stark achievement gap.

Murat Dizdar, who was appointed secretary of the NSW Education Department in June, told the Herald that evidence shows schools using explicit teaching practices have the most sustained improvements in academic outcomes.

The department will release a new public education plan on Monday that will outline six focus points, including plans to boost school staff numbers, raise attendance rates and lift the number of students completing year 12.

“Equity is also a big focus – we want to close the gaps for those students who are struggling,” Dizdar said.

The plan comes as 45 high-profile reading experts send an open letter to Australian education ministers, calling on governments to reduce the number of pupils leaving primary school without proficient reading skills.

The department’s four-year blueprint calls out the use of explicit instruction to help improve reading and maths results. The approach favours clear direction from teachers over student-led learning, and involves breaking down topics into small parts and regularly spot-checking to assess how students are doing.

“One of the reasons I believe in explicit teaching so much is because it does not discriminate,” Dizdar said. “It applies to all age levels and abilities when learning new or complex skills.”

“I’m going to be stronger around it, and I’m looking to reinforce that practice and drive our professional learning around that.”

But Dizdar said HSC and NAPLAN performance targets set for every school – benchmarks for the number of students achieving in the top two bands – will no longer be mandated. There will also be no individual phonics achievement targets for schools.

Instead, schools will have “improvement measures” in reading, numeracy, attendance and post-school pathways.

“We will start discussions with schools about improvement measures this term, and they will be set for every school by the end of term 1 next year,” Dizdar said. “They won’t be top down; rather they will be growth-based, discussed with schools and will consider their context and trajectory.”

Targets were outlined under the department’s School Success Model, an expansion of the 2016 Bump It Up strategy that aimed to boost the number of students achieving in the top performance bands.

Dizdar said feedback from teachers and principals was that “the top two band measures had inadvertent consequences, and that schools may not be focusing on all students”.

The ambassador schools program, which was designed to study the state’s best schools to work out the secrets of their success, will also be wound up.

Meanwhile, an open letter signed by reading experts and sent to education ministers has pushed for immediate action to tackle the achievement gap and set national targets for reading.

The letter, signed by cognitive science expert Anne Castles, Pam Snow and education expert Bill Louden, calls for urgent reforms to “set ambitious but achievable reading proficiency targets” and address the substantial achievement gaps between students from advantaged and disadvantaged families.

“The next National School Reform Agreement must clearly outline targets for reading based on the new NAPLAN proficiency benchmarks,” it says.

The latest NAPLAN data shows almost one-third of Australian students are failing to meet proficiency standards in reading, writing and maths, with a vast achievement gap between students in cities and regions.

“This means well over 1 million children in school today do not have the literacy skills to navigate the world with confidence, proficiency and dignity,” the letter says.

The head of the Australian Education Research Organisation, Jenny Donovan, said highlighting explicit instruction in the NSW public education plan was “commendable in its direction” but the department will “need to hold a line, and be clear about the practices that don’t work, such as over-reliance on inquiry-led learning”.

“You can use inquiry-led or student-led learning, but [it] can’t be the main approach,” she said.

The plan for public education involved an eight-week consultation period with thousands of teachers, principals, parents and stakeholder groups.

It outlines six key focus areas: ensuring high quality, evidence-based teaching; improving literacy and numeracy outcomes; lifting student wellbeing; increasing the proportion of children in preschool; strengthening respect for the teaching profession; and lifting the proportion of students going into university, training and work after school.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car said addressing teacher shortages and delivering high-quality, evidence-based learning was at the centre of the document.

“I am proud to deliver this blueprint for the next four years, which reflects the aspirations of teachers, parents and students,” Car said.

But opposition spokeswoman for education Sarah Mitchell said the plan contained no detail around how the goals within it would be achieved in NSW schools.

“Key policy areas like phonics, delivery of free universal pre-kindergarten and increasing the number of students in the top two NAPLAN bands for literacy and numeracy appear to have been dropped, which indicates the new Labor government is watering down transparency and accountability measures in schools.”

Federal education minister Jason Clare has commissioned a root-and-branch review that will examine targets and priorities for the next National School Reform Agreement, which will also look at transparency and accountability around public funding. A report is due by the end of the year.

The Productivity Commission has said targets should be developed to reduce the proportion of students who do not meet basic levels of literacy and numeracy.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/education-boss-calls-for-doubling-down-on-explicit-teaching-in-schools-20231022-p5ee39.html

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