Posted on May 12, 2023

Elementary School Encourages Students to Participate in a Black Lives Matter March, Teaches ‘Pyramid of Hate’

Kendall Tietz, Fox News, May 10, 2023

An elementary school in Maine held a march where students chanted “Black Lives Matter,” following weeks of preparation and activist encouragement by teachers and staff.

Educators at Presumpscot Elementary School (PES) in Portland, Maine, encouraged fifth grade students to participate in a school-organized Black Lives Matter march, according to public records requests filed by Parents Defending Education (PDE). Teachers at the school also promoted political activism to students in assignments like the “Pyramid of Hate.”

In a video posted on the school’s Facebook page, almost all the school’s students can be seen marching and shouting “Black Lives Matter” at the behest of adults guiding them.

“There are many moments as an educator/leader when you are humbled by the students and staff you work with. Friday was one of those moments,” PES’s post said, which PDE attributes to the school’s principal. “I was waiting at the green light on the corner of Washington and Preusmpscot behind a car. We were waiting to turn left when most of our school held up traffic as they marched chanting Black Lives Matter. It was incredible.”

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Another document obtained by PDE that “appears to be created by students” outlined plans to “make BLM posters,” “make hands/fists to hang around the school” and provide a “different quote over the loudspeaker everyday from a Black activist.”

The organizing teacher emailed staff, predicting, “The halls will be quite bustling and noisy – I imagine students will be starting with a chant of ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER!'” to which another teacher responded: “I will have a chat with my kindergartners in advance to help them understand on their level what BLM means” and asked if anyone had “a great video or read aloud to suggest for introducing this topic to five and six-year-olds.”

Another photo obtained by PDE depicts a teacher showing students a “Pyramid of Hate,” which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes as an Illustration of “the prevalence of bias, hate and oppression in our society.”

“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,” according to the ADL. In following this logic, the ADL argues that actions such as a “lack of self-reflection or awareness of privilege,” “non-inclusive language” or “microaggressions” could lead to “the act or intent to deliberately and systematically annihilate an entire people.”

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