Oxford School District counselor shares Learning for Justice’s “Responding to Hate and Bias at School” document; document promotes Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate

Parents Defending Education submitted a public records request to the Oxford School District requesting documents and emails regarding transgender and LGBTQ issues. PDE received an email back from an employee who was a counselor at Bramlett Elementary School at the time that is dated June 2, 2021. This counselor mentions she is doing professional development “in the Equity area.” She then adds:

I am sharing one piece of good information that is geared toward schools and how to respond to bias or hate incidents. I think it is a great document. Hopefully you can pull up this pdf.

The document she then provided in her email is titled “Responding to Hate and Bias at School” from the organization Teaching Tolerance. This organization currently is known by the name Learning for Justice and is part of the notoriously political organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The document promotes the Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate and Learning for Justice’s own “equity audits.” Learning for Justice states that the Pyramid of Hate is “suitable for older students as well as for professional development—exploring levels of hate and bigotry.”

A “No Place for Hate” document from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) explains the purpose of the “Pyramid of Hate.” The ADL uses the document to explain that “while every biased attitude or act does not lead to genocide, each genocide has been built on the acceptance of attitudes and actions described at the lower levels of the Pyramid.” The pyramid intends to show that actions such as using “non-inclusive language” and committing “microaggressions” will possibly lead to “the act or intent to deliberately and systematically annihilate an entire people.”