Baraboo Student Photo Antisemitic?

I have talked to the chief of police and the office of the school administrator for the district.

Jordan Blue speaks about a “feeling” that he had and no more. And the community is “black and blue” over his remarks. And African-Americans have been convicted in this country with no evidence as well. An apology is needed to give to Baraboo.
The investigation has not turned up any “corruption” by the photographer or the students that even Jordan Blue knows about, no corruption before, during, or after the taking of the photograph and if there is evidence within the photo even Jordan Blue could not have known about it as the photo was being taken.

Police Chief Mark Schauf told me that the school district asked for assistance and he was providing it. He also added that the role of the police is to make sure that no crime has been committed while protecting the constitutional rights of everyone in the community. I told him and others that my point of view is that we have “to be fair and accurate” about what took place and I later shared this video with him from CNN where Jordan Blue was interviewed.

My outreach included contacted local press and members of the school board.

I was not convinced that there was an act of antisemitism, especially by last night and my desire to have more information led to find the CNN interview. A huge snowball effect took place as dozens more news and newspapers picked up the story.
Before I go further please keep in mind that I am not a reporter. My work of the last fifty years has been in education and I know schools, school districts, and students and their behavior. In addition I did not see any supporting information for the words of Jordan Blue anywhere.

this post has since been deleted, but i just want @barabooSD to be aware of the disturbing actions that are represented in this photograph. this is BEYOND sickening. pic.twitter.com/Fer5heTted

— carly sidey (@CarlySidey) November 12, 2018

The statements released that some of us paid attention were statements that told us that the community was a good community vetting or a thorough investigation. When I read about the police getting involved, I wondered what kind of crime could have taken place? And there was information about Jordan Bleu and how he had been “bullied” at school. That could have led to other types of bullying, but there should not be any rush to judgment.

My own personal experiences have shaped my work. About a half year before making my way into the “infamous” Rubber Room of New York City and later into Joel Klein’s book Lessons of Hope about this tenure of chancellor in the Big Apple, I had this experience where my supervisor called me out of a classroom to tell me that I had made a racist remark. She could not even find the words to tell me what I had said and I left her quickly. What I had said near the end of a lesson on pirating and Blackbeard the pirate was “the hair on his face was black.” This was a hint to my students, but to a supervisor who wasn’t paying attention carefully it turned out (most likely) to be “his face was black.” Big difference!

Jordan Bleu did not cite any supporting evidence for his claim on television and the news published that story of the “sieg heil” salute. Photographers almost always engage their subjects in action photos. At weddings (possibly) things like throw a kiss and the raising of one’s hand is more like asking to go to the bathroom instead of the Nazi salute. No?

After the” Pittsburgh Massacre” and other anti-Semitic acts, this was a very important story to cover. I won’t call it “fake news” which is a term in “vogue” today, but the matter needs to be corrected and fast. And the general public has to know that there seems to be no evidence to support Jordan Blue, evidence that the F.B.I. and police departments look for. We have to thank the person who brought all of this to our attention, but the truth has to replace false information or opinion.

I will not say that this incident was provoked by Donald Trump who I seem to write about just about every day. But in another unrelated matter which is breaking news, a Parkland parent and others are upset that Nikolas Cruz has registered to vote in Florida and he registered as a Republican.

Andrew Pollack, the father of one of the victims of the Parkland shooting was very upset, but Florida law protects the suspect in this case and his right to register. Pollack supports Republicans and this matter of the voting is very political and politics do matter. It was only a matter of time before Nikolas Cruz went from wearing a Make America Great Again hat to registering as a Republican in my view, but you never know until the facts are made clear. At least two newspapers that I checked including the Washington Times left out the fact that Cruz had registered Republican.

Take a look at Good Morning America and its comments on the photo which is overwhelmingly indicative of jumping the gun. Punishment where there is no proof? CBS interviewed Jordan Blue as well and the photo was called shameful by CBS. Good Morning America, how are you? Time to reevaluate the matter! Nobody listens to me!

And in the absence of evidence, the school district would open itself to a major lawsuit by those students who were raising their hands to say goodbye if those students were disciplined (without evidence).