Written by Nishaat Ismail
Sugar land was established in 1959. On the city’s website, it states that Sugar Land has a rich history. Omitted is the region’s history of extermination and displacement of native Karankawa and Tonkawa tribes and the institution of African American slavery. Sugar Land was built by imperialism and off the backs of slaves working in cotton, corn, and sugar plantations.
As one of the most diverse suburban counties in America, one would believe that these horrible legacies of the past had been exterminated, and that Sugar Land had moved forward to build a community based on reconciliation and inclusion.
Yet, on Monday, February 26th, at Fort Settlement Middle School, the sixth grade social studies department presented roughly 500 sixth graders with a Middle East presentation that sent the community reeling. The slide show started in poor taste and worsened as it progressed. The end of the presentation could not be characterized as anything but anti-Muslim hate speech and bigotry, as the last slide of the presentation depicted a group of terrorists, the 9-11 bombing, and a picture of the holy Quran centered in the midst of the violent images or burning buildings and men holding machine guns. If that wasn’t enough, to add insult to injury, leading questions were included, such as: “Who do you think these people are?”, and, “What do you think they want?”
But a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll let you view the slide and decide for yourself.
Most people do not need an explanation of why these slides are offensive. However, this toxic hate speech was deemed appropriate to disseminate to 500 impressionable minds as an objective introduction to the region and its culture.
The school’s principal, Dr. Jennifer Williams, was made aware of the situation the following day by individual emails from concerned parents. Dr. Williams sent a reply stating, “We do not share our personal beliefs with students on any topic…The topics discussed in the slides are aligned with the district and state curriculum.”
An initial group of 8-10 families came together to further investigate the issue by speaking directly to the students from all three classes and asking them about the events that transpired. The students’ responses were unanimous. All students in sixth grade were given this PowerPoint. Some were taught it, and some were told to review the slides and come up with their own opinions. An anonymous sixth grader wrote, “My teacher told me that it was several years old, and the current Social Studies team contributed to it,” referring to the PowerPoint presentation. This supported the parent’s suspicion that the slides had been altered this year by the Social Studies team. The parents were able to obtain a copy of last year’s presentation. Although some slides were similar, many of the slides had been modified. Despite this evidence, Dr. Willaims stood by the school’s position that these slides were created by a teacher’s aide 10 years ago, and that the employee is no longer part of the FBISD system. The parent’s however continue to believe that the slides were indeed altered this year, given that the font and language were different than in years past. Horrifyingly, even if the slides hadn’t been altered recently, the children of this district have still been exposed to this bigoted presentation for over a decade.
One of the parents wrote on behalf of sixteen FSMS families stating, “We expected more than this. When we send our children to school, we expect them to excel and grow. We expect our schools to teach our students to think critically and to have respectful discussions. We do not send our children to school to feel alienated . . . It is clear an issue is present when 6th-grade students themselves realize there is an issue with the lesson, but the administration and staff do not.”
On February 29, 2024,, Dr. Williams emailed the FSMS families who viewed the presentation and stated that an investigation was conducted and that “no ill intent” was found on behalf of any of the existing teachers who gave this presentation. No further details were shared with the families with regard to the details of the investigation. Although the parent’s remained unsatisfied by the investigation and its conclusions, no further information was provided. The parents were left with more questions than answers: What standards were used to come to these conclusions? What exactly defines ill intent? What can be done now to repair the damage that has been caused to Muslim students who are left feeling uncomfortable, out of place, and targeted in their own school, as well as the damage caused to the malleable impressions of non-Muslim students exposed to this hostile and offensive presentation?.
Although the slides were taken down, the accompanying email did little to reassure the parents. It stated, “Specific slides within a classroom slideshow presentation, without the instructional context of the accompanying classroom discussion, could be deemed as culturally insensitive and offensive.” The parents, and the greater community, believe that there are no circumstances in which these slides could be perceived as anything but offensive and bigoted. The fact that the Social Studies team, school administration and the Principal could not recognize that this material was overtly offensive and insulting, demonstrates a deep misunderstanding of Islam and an at least subconscious acceptance of bigoted, anti-Muslim tropes.
The parents decided to escalate the issue to the district level in an effort to seek appropriate remediation of the children’s education on the topic and to push for re-education on anti-muslim bigotry. The parents reached out to the Fort Bend Board of directors, trustees and Superintendent, but received no response.
Multiple individuals, including activist and community leader Adeel Akthar, called the offices of the Superintendent and Directors to help make sense of the silence. Several phone calls later, it was clear that no one within the ISD was communicating with each other, let alone the parents or the community. The issue was, obviously, not a priority.
After another week of appeals, Dr. Mensah (Chief of Schools), Dr. Williams , and a Director of Schools met with 6 of the families and several other groups concerned about this situation. Dr. Mensah issued an immediate apology and reassured the parents that they would receive the following: An apology from the school, an apology from the teachers to the students, and that the lesson would be retaught.
In addition, he assured the parents that guidelines would be put in place for introducing new material to lesson plans given to students. A few days later the parents received: an acknowledgment letter from the Superintendent, the promised apology letter from the Principal at FSMS, and the apology of teachers that was given to the students in their classes.
However, the material still has not been remediated, and there is no evidence of systemic improvements to prevent such an incident from recurring. The parents had hoped that there would be tangible measures and plans for other FBISD schools to monitor their own lesson plans, as well as concrete measures and steps to ensure this does not occur in the future. Unfortunately, none have been forthcoming.
Although the community has acknowledged the efforts of the School Board, it remains dissatisfied with the results. Acknowledgment of the issue was late and delayed. Efforts to reach out and investigate the situation were handled one-sidedly. Communication with the community was poor at best. The issue was not made a priority, despite several calls and emails from concerned parents and community members. Apologies and acknowledgments by administration that were eventually made used the most minimal language needed to satisfy the requirements of an apology. No one was found to be at fault, and no one was held accountable. Timelines and future preventative measures have not been formulated or communicated. No attempt was made at educating the teachers and administration about overcoming their obvious, anti-muslim biases.
Unfortunately, it is telling that this happened to Arabs and Muslims given the current circumstances in the Middle East. Had this happened to another faith group, the repercussions would have been enormous. The parents are still awaiting complete resolution of the issue, but they are fearful that something like this can happen again as no systems were changed and no re-education put into place.
- Nishat Ismail
A parent of children in FBISD school district