(PatriotPostNews.com) – The sudden removal of Aliyah Sharif’s piece on the violence in Gaza from the school newspaper’s website has left the senior at Oakland Tech High School feeling bewildered and angry.
Sharif stated her conviction that she is being subjected to censorship and repression.
School and district administrators were made aware of concerns about the January issue of The Scribe, the student-run newspaper of Oakland Tech, shortly after its printing and distribution. The article compared the death toll in Gaza to that of the Holocaust.
Kyle Melton demanded that the story be removed immediately from an email addressed to school administrators.
One line glaringly stood out to Melton. Sharif wrote that the current murder rate might cause the death toll to surpass that of the Holocaust.
There are approximately 2.3 million people in Gaza. Surpassing the death toll of the holocaust is an impossibility.
Oakland Unified School District authorities deleted the story.
Sharif maintains that there isn’t an anti-Semitic tone to her essay and wants to clarify that her article about the Jewish community does not contain any hateful messages.
Melton said thoughtfully in his letter to the school that to suggest that it could exceed the magnitude of the Holocaust, during which six million Jews lost their lives, seems deliberately provocative. He said a teacher should have noticed and censored it.
The first phrase of the piece also portrayed Israel in a particular light, which Melton found objectionable. Sharif called Israel an apartheid state.
Sharif is still confused by OUSD’s decision, strongly disagrees with the action, and feels let down by the insufficient communication as they didn’t provide a clear explanation for removing her article. They expressed concern for her safety as one of the reasons for the article’s removal.
The Oakland Tech principal and the Oakland Unified School District have issued statements reiterating their support for students’ right to free speech and their priority in protecting school communities.
Mohsin Sharif, Aliyah’s father, conveyed his steadfast support for his daughter. He thinks the article was removed because her views were critical of Israel.
Oakland Tech administrator Martel Price raised concerns about the article’s placement on a school-sponsored platform in an email addressed to the Sharif family. The possibility of the school, its employees, and its pupils being stereotyped as antisemitic.
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