Philadelphia’s public school system has become an “absolute cesspool” of anti-Semitism and anti-American hatred, according to local parents, who say Gov. Josh Shapiro (D.) has “completely ignored” their pleas for help.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Philadelphia school officials have publicly defended terrorism, called for the release of convicted cop killers, claimed Israel is an “apartheid theocracy,” and denounced the United States as a “criminal Amerikan empire.” The Philadelphia school district settled a federal discrimination case with the Department of Education last year after students allegedly taunted their Jewish classmates with Nazi salutes, swastika graffiti on doors, and threats to “kill the Jews.”
Frustrated parents told the Washington Free Beacon that they have tried to raise these issues with the governor but that his staff has done nothing in response and eventually stopped taking meetings with them.
One mother of two Philadelphia public school students told the Free Beacon that she and other concerned parents met with Shapiro staffers several times during 2023 and 2024, including with Carrie Rowe, the current head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Education.
“We have met with people in his office, seven or eight of them on a few occasions, and nothing has happened,” the mother said. “[The governor’s office] heard firsthand the horrors that are going on, and what we’ve been dealing with, and nothing has happened to address or fix it.”
Another mother of two students in the school system said Shapiro’s office stopped taking meetings with the parents last fall—after problems in the schools became “much more intense.”
“Let’s just be very clear, [Shapiro’s staffers] have done nothing,” she said. “They continue to not respond to our requests. It’s quite shocking to us. We’ve asked them to look into teachers who seem to be promoting violence, promoting self-immolation. We’ve asked them to look at the curriculum. They haven’t done it.”
A Shapiro spokesman denied that the governor has neglected parental concerns, and said he took action to address it even though it is a “local issue” pertaining to city officials and the school district.
Shapiro’s aides met with parents and “offered critical resources, connected local parents to key officials in the City of Philadelphia and at the Philadelphia School District, worked with local and state law enforcement to ensure public safety is front and center, and directly supported efforts parents have made to register their complaints,” according to the governor’s spokesman.
“Governor Shapiro takes a back seat to no one on these issues, and as he has repeatedly spoken out about, anti-Semitism and this kind of hateful rhetoric is unacceptable and has no place in Pennsylvania—especially not in our classrooms,” the spokesman said. “This is a matter the governor and our administration have made clear the district needs to take very seriously.”
The parents raised concerns about multiple education officials involved in Philadelphia public schools, including the district’s social studies curriculum director Ismael Jimenez, a vocal defender of Hamas; Hannah Gann, a high school teacher who accused Israel of “genocidal terror” and declared, “F— the police until Palestine is free!”; and Keziah Ridgeway, a high school teacher who called Israel’s military actions in Gaza “worse than gas chambers.”
Jimenez has called Israel a “terrorist state” and a “racist apartheid theocracy,” and defended Hamas terrorism. He also denied that the group kidnapped Israelis during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, claiming it has been “proven recently that Hamas had nothing to do with kidnapping that started current invasion of the Gaza strip.”
Ridgeway, who has also claimed America’s “success is predicated on the blood and labor of Native Americans & Black people,” was reassigned from Northeast High School to another school this spring, following a district investigation into allegations that she threatened violence against Jewish parents.
Jimenez, Gann, Ridgeway, and other Philadelphia school officials recently launched an educators group called the “Racial Justice Organizing Committee,” which lobbies for anti-American and anti-Israel programming in schools. The group posted a flyer on Instagram this week in which they called for the release of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and demanded that people “Reject Amerikan Patriotism” on July 4th. The post also included a Hamas logo.
Clifford Smith, government affairs director at the North American Values Institute (NAVI), said his organization has long documented extremist teachers’ statements and curricula in Philadelphia schools, which have become some of the most radical in the country.
“I’ve seen no worse schools than Philadelphia for having particularly radical and anti-Semitic teachers and administrators,” he told the Free Beacon. “It’s one thing to have your own political views, it’s another to overtly praise cop killers and FBI fugitives.”
NAVI reviewed the high school history courses for Philadelphia public schools and found many of them were developed under the leadership of Jimenez.
School officials are “proudly indoctrinating and grooming their students to hate. To hate Jews, hate Israel,” said one parent. “And then there’s a wider narrative that goes with it, which is hating this country, hating police, using violence as an option.”
The school district’s history courses focus on heavy criticism of the United States and capitalism and “replace historical instruction with political ideology,” according to NAVI’s analysis. “Major events such as the French Revolution, World War II, and the Holocaust are minimized or omitted, while themes of oppression, resistance, colonialism, and anti-capitalism dominate.”
The 10th Grade African American History course asks students to look at the history of “race and racism in the United States” and use it to “find a song that they think should replace the national anthem.” The class also promotes reparations as a part of the “ongoing fight for racial justice,” and devotes extensive time to the Black Panther movement and black nationalism, while neglecting to mention prominent black leaders like former president Barack Obama or Rosa Parks.
The U.S. History curriculum omits the Revolutionary War and the Constitution but includes subjects such as “Scientific Racism and Exploitative Capitalism.” The course instructs students that “[r]ace and racism have historically played a significant role in shaping American foreign policy.” Students are asked to define “America’s identity” based on bullet points such as “Unbalanced economic growth” and “Continuance of racism and its lingering impact.”
In the 11th Grade World History course, the “Second World War goes largely missing, with only a couple of sources cited. The Holocaust warrants a single mention in a link,” according to NAVI’s analysis. The course teaches students that the “rise of capitalism has been closely intertwined with imperialism,” which has “led to the subjugation of peoples and the extraction of resources from colonized lands.” It also claims that terms such as “war on terror” are used to “thinly mask racist justification for armed intervention, increasing surveillance and control.”
The 12th Grade Social Studies curriculum instructs the class to “use antiracism & intersectionality as lenses during our study of Social Science” and “discuss and plan how the classroom can be a brave space that embraces antiracism and affirms the intersectional identities of everyone in the community.” It also tells students, many of whom have just reached voting age, to assess candidates based on where they “stand on identified Civic Action Research Project issues,” which include “racism, antiracism, oppression, privilege, and intersectionality.”
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