What fills the silence

REBECCA COOPER TRAYNOR

I’m Jewish. My family lives in Prince Edward County, my children attend an HPEDSB school, and over the years we have attended events at Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville.

On September 20, a horrific antisemitic attack took place outside that synagogue. A Belleville police officer was shot and left with life-threatening injuries while protecting members of our community.

I remain incredibly grateful to the officers who put themselves in harm’s way that day. Their actions protected people inside the synagogue and may have prevented something even more devastating.

The next evening, I told my children what happened.

Not everything. They’re kids. I gave them the information I thought they could handle, answered their questions and reassured them.

What surprised me was that their school board said nothing directly to families.

So I started asking why.

And I kept asking.

Over the next three and a half weeks, I communicated with HPEDSB CEO Katherine MacIver several times by email and phone. I emailed our principal three times over a week and a half before receiving a response. I reached out to trustees, CIJA, our MP and MPP, the Premier’s office and the Ministry of Education.

I wasn’t looking for a fight. I wanted something to make sense.

HPEDSB had communicated with families about other horrific events, including a school shooting in British Columbia and wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Why was an antisemitic attack in our own community different?

MacIver explained that the board had consulted people experienced in trauma response and psychology and worried a system-wide message could cause additional distress.

I understand that concern.

But I wasn’t asking the school board to tell my children.

I was asking why they didn’t tell me.

And children were already talking. In one of my children’s classrooms, students were discussing the attack amongst themselves.

Silence hadn’t protected them from the conversation. It had simply left a space for children to fill themselves.

For years, I’ve watched people blur together Jewish people, Judaism, Israel, the Israeli government and the Israeli military. They’re not the same thing. These past few weeks have heightened my awareness of how important that education is right here at home.

Then, on October 8, an email arrived from HPEDSB.

“There is no place for anti-Semitism, discrimination, or hate of any kind in our school communities,” MacIver wrote.

Finally.

And I mean that with gratitude, not sarcasm.

The letter commits to education about historical and contemporary antisemitism and reminds families that support is available. I’m genuinely glad families received it.

But I’m left with one question.

What happens next time?

The next community targeted may not be mine. Do we wait three weeks before saying hate has no place here?

Or do we learn from this?

Schools can’t fix everything dividing our world. But they can teach children that a person is not a government, a religion is not a military, and nobody is responsible for an entire country because of their identity.

Adults could use some of that education too.

Maybe our kids will be the ones who bring it home.

Because silence doesn’t stop the conversation.

It just gives up our chance to help shape it.