Hopkins head Glendinning: "Very upsetting and unsettling.”
A private school has placed an employee on administrative leave after his wife and a neighbor got in an argument over the war in Gaza.
Hopkins School announced the action against Charlie Rich, its associate director of annual and reunion giving, on Feb. 17.
Head of School Matt Glendinning said the school took the action in the aftermath of a Feb. 11 incident that took place down the hill from the grade 7 – 12 school on Knollwood Drive in Upper Westville.
“Earlier this week, we learned of a video circulating online showing a verbal altercation between a Hopkins employee, the employee’s spouse — who are both Hopkins parents — and a neighbor regarding the war between Israel and Hamas,” Glendinning stated in a letter emailed Saturday to Hopkins faculty, staff and parents.
“The spouse has stated she was engaged in a march to advocate for a ceasefire. In the video and in social media posts, the spouse used antisemitic language that is deeply concerning. Pending further review, the Hopkins employee has been placed on administrative leave and both the employee and the spouse are precluded from being on campus.
“As a community of learning, civility, and respect, Hopkins vehemently condemns speech that is hateful, harassing, and intimidating, including antisemitic speech. Antisemitism in all its forms has no place in the Hopkins community or in our larger communities. While this incident did not involve the School or its students, we understand that issues as this can be and have been very upsetting and unsettling.”
The letter did not cite any objections to actions by Charlie Rich or allegations against him.
Glendinning and Rich did not respond to requests for comment.
“We’re not going to elaborate beyond the facts laid out in our community letter,” school Director of Communications Dan Altano told the Independent.
The move comes amid a national debate at elite campuses over how to respond to allegations of antisemitism and the free-speech rights of people expressing strong opinions about the war in Gaza. Hopkins’ decision Monday drew praise from a neighbor who confronted Rich in the incident in question, while drawing fire from FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), a national free-speech advocacy group.
The Backstory
Thabisa Rich on her neighborhood street on Feb. 11.
The Riches live near the school in Upper Westville. Wrapped in a Palestinian flag, Thabisa Rich left their home and set off on a one-person march in the street on Knollwood Drive on the afternoon of Feb. 11, announcing on Facebook that she intended to “protest in my community for Palestine & a permanent Ceasefire.”
She brought along a bullhorn, through which she chanted, “Free Palestine Now!”
One of the first homes she passed belongs to the family of Elchanan Poupko, a Jewish day school teacher who moved into the city several months ago.
Poupko’s wife told him she heard the chanting in the street about Palestine for 20 seconds or so, Poupko told the Independent. He rushed out into the street.
Thabisa’s husband Charlie pulled up in a car. He did not join in the chanting. Recording the encounter on video, Poupko began challenging them for being in the street and for Thabisa Rich’s chants about Israel and the war. Thabisa Rich, standing in the street, kept chanting in the bullhorn. Poupko accused Rich of “targeting” his house because it had a “Stand with Israel” sign out front, a charge they denied. “Go back to Germany, you Nazi!” Poupko told Rich. He yelled at the Riches about the prevalence of rape in South Africa. (Thabisa Rich grew up in South Africa.)
A crowd of onlookers gathered; some people demanded that the Riches leave the neighborhood. They eventually drove away. (Click here for a previous story detailing the incident.)
Tensions only grew after that, online.
Thabisa Rich, who in her day job works as a community outreach coordinator for the city Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism, posted a Facebook Live video reporting having been “insulted and intimidated by the jewish family” that just moved into the neighborhood. “You tell me when you want to come back and ask for a ceasefire and ask for this people to stop their hate because they think that they are white and privileged and that they think that their religion is superior to the rest,” she said in the video. “I need people to show up to this very same street. We need to find a time to come back and show up in numbers and say no, enough is enough.”
Poupko, meanwhile, posted a video that claimed the one-person march down the street was a “Palestinian mob” that had “targeted” his house and harassed his family by standing and chanting antisemitic slogans. That video eventually found its way onto an influential national right-wing website called the Daily Wire, which reported “Connecticut City Employee Harasses Jewish Family over Pro-Israel Yard Sign.” Then a mainstream national organization called The American Jewish Committee picked up that version of the incident accusing Rich of harassing the family and issued a statement call for Mayor Justin Elicker to “take action” against Thabisa Rich as his employee. The mayor said his administration is reviewing the incident, including allegations about antisemitism in her Facebook posts.
Neighbors React; FIRE Fires Back
One Hopkins parent, Lisa Kinney-Bajwa, said she found the letter announcing Rich’s discipline “alarming.”
She said she subsequently watched the video in which the neighbor argued with Charlie Rich and “didn’t see anything that was wrong on the Hopkins employee’s part.” She also questioned taking action against someone based on comments ascribed to their spouse: “I think if they’re going to react like that, they need to be very careful about everybody and their spouse. I say good luck with that!”
“Most alarming,” she said, “is that my child is there to learn and may have points of view on a conflict that don’t resonate with other students. Is my child going to be labeled antisemitic? That label sticks with you for life.”
Kinney-Bajwa lives on Knollwood Drive, the street adjacent to Hopkins where the encounter took place. She said tensions existed in the neighborhood before the Oct. 7 attack. She expressed hope that in the wake of this incident neighbors can find a way to de-escalate tensions: “If a neighbor does something that you don’t like, you should be neighborly and be like, ‘Maybe you had a bad day.’ Let some things go. Trying to get someone fired isn’t a very neighborly thing to do.”
Poupko, the neighbor who confronted and video-recorded the Riches, offered a more positive take when asked for his reaction to the decision.
“Since October 7th there has been a 388% increase in antisemitism. Jewish families feel unsafe,” Poupko responded.
“It is imperative Americans ask themselves what they can do to help reduce prejudice and hate towards Jews, rather than increasing it.”
Gayle Slossberg, CEO of the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven, did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
Meanwhile, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a national group that monitors curbs on free speech from both the left and the right, expressed concern about the Hopkins decision.
FIRE Director of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr noted that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private schools, so “they typically have discretion to punish employees for constitutionally protected speech.”
“But private schools and businesses generally should be reluctant to fire employees for what they say off the clock, especially when they speak about matters of public interest like the Israel-Hamas war,” Terr continued. “That way, Americans will have breathing space to contribute to the public conversation on important issues without having to worry about losing their livelihoods. And in this case, the employee apparently isn’t even the one who said anything the school found objectionable. Imposing guilt by association is pretty difficult to square with any reasonable notion of fairness.”
This is absolutely unbelievable. A spouse is suspended from their job because of the very legitimate actions of their spouse. This war is not one of good vs. evil. The Palestinians have a very real issue with Israel. Those who support the Palestinians do so knowing full well that Israel will not rest until they possess all the land. Right now the Israelis have eliminated tens of thousands of Palestinian children . This war is not about antisemitism, all parties involved are Semitic. Maybe you should all read some books about this issue. Go back to the British and the policies they put in place to wipe out the Palestinians.
Take Charlie Rich off of suspension Hopkins.