Dear Members of Our Community,
Our federal government officials have reported that there has been an uptick in bias incidents across the country. Unfortunately, Great Neck has not been immune to this trend. It has come to our attention that there have been numerous anti-Asian incidents within our community, starting in January and continuing as recently as this past week in Great Neck.
In all cases, racial slurs and hateful comments, mostly centering around the recent pandemic, have been directed at young, defenseless children ranging from elementary to high school age. These incidents have included asking our youngest students if they eat bats to calling them COVID-19 spreaders, with some even getting physically abused.
As parent leaders, we stand together to condemn these acts. An attack against one of our children is an attack against all of our children. An act of discrimination against one of our community members is a hateful act against our community as a whole. Prejudicial comments aimed at one of our children are felt by us all and cast a shadow on our entire neighborhood.
The hurt felt by just one of our students is felt by us all, and we are compelled to speak out against it.
We stand united in our condemnation of hate speech, negative stereotypes, prejudicial and discriminatory comments of any kind, but especially at this moment in time when we are witnessing the steady rise of anti-Asian bias incidents fueled by the rhetoric around the pandemic.
We are asking our entire community to be part of the solution and to not repeat prejudicial generalizations of any nature. As a community, we are thankful of the overarching mission of a Great Neck education – to provide a safe environment for our children ‘…to become life-long learners and compassionate productive members of a diverse, global society.’
We have volunteered countless hours, working side by side with our neighbors from different cultures, religions and backgrounds for the good of our schools and ALL of our children.
Getting to know one another through the years has been a light in our lives. We respect our differences and have thoroughly enjoyed learning new things about each other. We love our community and celebrate the cultural and spiritual diversity in Great Neck, the town we call home, and we are united in our desire to create a safe and nurturing environment in which to raise our children.
Very truly yours,
Great Neck Public School Parent Leaders
Lori Beth Schwartz & Kevin Sun, UPTC Total Community Involvement, Co-Chairs
Miriam Kobliner & Moji Pourmoradi, UPTC Co-Presidents
Linda Cheung & Pargol Khadavi, UPTC Presidents’ Council, VPs
Holly Damaghi & Kevin Sun, UPTC Executive VP
Robin Fleishman, UPTC VP
Grant Toch & Julie Lam-Leong, UPTC Communications VP
Jason Gilbert, UPTC Treasurer
Michelle Ahdoot, UPTC Member-at-Large
Alicia Lev, Ofer Melamed & Carol Valic, William A. Shine South High School PTO, Co-Presidents
Anulekha Ganguli, Jordana Levine & Maria Margiloff, John L. Miller North High School PTO
Co-Presidents
Korina Lau, South Middle School PTA, President
Margareth Adams, Vanessa Tamari & Carey Ye, Richard S. Sherman North Middle School PTO, Co-Presidents
Bettina Segal & Bill Groel, Elizabeth M. Baker Elementary School PTO, Co-Presidents
Marjan Kashani, Carolyn Moezinia & Laleh Zar, John F. Kennedy Elementary School PTA, Co-Presidents
Yvonne Wong Fein & Carol Peng, Lakeville Elementary School PTA, Co-Presidents
Fan Jia, Debbie Kerendian & Lauren Yaghoubi, Saddle Rock Elementary School PTA, Co-Presidents
Kam Lau & Shilpa Shah, Parkville School PTO, Co-Presidents
Bita Hendizadeh, Ron Kosinski & Jessica Smooha, SEPTA, Co-Presidents
