Conflict besets Andover High

ANDOVER -- The social studies teachers say they merely wanted to provide their students different perspectives about conflict in the Middle East when they invited a group with a history of condemning Israel's treatment of Palestinians to speak at Andover High School.

The teachers never expected that their invitation to the group Wheels of Justice would set off the firestorm that has ensued, pitting student against student, teacher against teacher, and rabbi against minister in this affluent suburb north of Boston.

The climate at the high school has grown hostile, students say, as friends argue over how to balance the right to hear all views with sensitivity to individual beliefs. One Jewish teacher said two colleagues harassed her when she refused to sign a petition to bring in the Wisconsin-based group. Many parents are supporting the teachers who invited the group, which spoke to social studies classes on Friday. But more than 50 others who opposed the group's appearance formed a "Committee Against Hate Speech in School."

The debate highlights the struggle faced by school systems to teach students to think critically about explosive world events without alienating the communities they serve.

"This is an issue that is surrounded by emotion, and it's easy to lose sight of some aspect of what the event might actually be," said Peter Anderson, principal of Andover High. "In this day and age, the most important thing we do is to teach students to be intelligently critical."

This week, in an attempt to ease some of the tensions, Anderson plans to invite a second set of speakers with a different view of the strife between Palestinians and Israelis.

The controversy over Wheels of Justice erupted into a shouting match Friday night during a public presentation by the group arranged by Anderson.

Andover, a town of 33,000, prides itself on its town-meeting style of governance, where everyone has a voice and a vote, and more than 200 people crowded into the high school library for the 90-minute presentation Friday evening. But Anderson threatened to cut the forum short when parents and community members began interrupting and shouting at the speakers 15 minutes into the first speech.

"This is pure propaganda," a man shouted as Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian American and medical geneticist who helps coordinate the group, addressed the crowd.

"You're a liar," another yelled to Qumsiyeh, after he compared Israel to South Africa's former apartheid state.

Jake Lebowitz, 14, a freshman who attended the evening forum, said the controversial subject should not have been featured in school without an opposing group at the same time to strike a balance.

"This just sparks argument and hate," he said in an interview.

Wheels of Justice travels around the country sharing first-hand accounts of what Qumsiyeh called human rights abuse in the Middle East.

But Qumsiyeh has angered Jewish groups around the nation by referring to the establishment of Israel as ethnic cleansing.

The two social studies teachers, Tom Meyers and Patrick Patterson, had invited Wheels of Justice to speak in October at Andover High, which has 1,800 students. The teachers felt the visit would help students understand bias and the power of language as they learned more about conflict in the Middle East. Other teachers planned to have the group address their classes as well.

But Anderson abruptly canceled the scheduled appearance after some parents and members of the Jewish community protested what they called the group's anti-Semitic message. Others defended the group's right to speak and threatened a lawsuit through the American Civil Liberties Union. Last month, Anderson changed his mind and agreed to allow the speakers.

Rabbi Robert S. Goldstein of Temple Emanual, Andover's largest synagogue, had tried to get the school to ban the group. Unsuccessful, he held a forum last week to inform students of the views of the Anti-Defamation League, which provides information about Israel advocacy and responds to anti-Semitism.

The Rev. Ralph Galen, minister of Andover's Unitarian Universalist Congregation and a member of Merrimack Valley People for Peace, said Goldstein's stance against Wheels of Justice has disappointed him.

"The situation in the Middle East is so complex that it's already at a boiling point," said Galen, who helped bring The Wheels of Justice to neighboring North Andover two years ago with less resistance. "It just pushes us over and it's so hard to maintain our rationality, but we must."

Some students, even those who disagreed with the views of the Wheels of Justice speakers, said they appreciated that they and the town had a chance to hear the group.

"A lot of people are set in their Andover bubble, and parents are uncomfortable that their kids could be exposed to something like this," said Laila Shaby, a sophomore who is Jewish and emphasized her pro-Israel position. "Turning them away would be denying the students' reality. We're going to have to deal with it some day."

Eddie Troy, 15, a sophomore whose social studies class Wheels of Justice addressed, said a few of his classmates challenged the speakers and asked about the organization's ties to groups that advocate Palestinian armed struggle.

Meyers, one of the teachers who invited the group, said he had hoped exposure to Wheels of Justice would spark his students to think critically about people's perceptions of their life experiences.

"I want kids to know that you have people from the same region of the world dealing with similar issues with different perspectives," Meyers said. "I want them to see how groups of people may deny the realities and perceptions of somebody else."

Mary Robb , who teaches a class on democracy and media literacy, had her students write a paper about what they observed during the Wheels of Justice presentation and whether they felt it accurately reflected events in the Middle East. Robb said the controversy sparked such a healthy debate that the social studies department plans to start an annual forum for controversial speakers.

Some parents support this view.

"We talk about these things at home and we try to make our kids appreciate different perspectives on any issue to prepare them for going out in the world," said Tom Boshar , whose daughter is a senior at Andover.

Others in the community remain unsure about the educational value of the Wheels of Justice visit.

"When you introduce a subject like that into the classroom environment, students have a tendency to take it as academic truth," said Vincent Davey, 80, a retired high school English teacher.

Larry Bruce, who is Jewish, said his daughter, a 10th-grader, stayed home from school Friday "in support for her faith," even though she was not in a class scheduled to hear the speakers.

"I personally have concerns for her safety and for any anti-Semitic backlash this is going to bring," Bruce said. "Up until now, I was proud to be in this community as a Jew."

Anderson suggested that the controversy could lay the groundwork for future discussions about current events.

"Five years from now, it could be North and South Korea producing the same kind of vested, emotional response," he said.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. Globe correspondent Dan Tuohy contributed to this report.