Palestinian-Aligned Workshop Cancelation Sheds Light on PEA’s Political Bias

By TRUMAN YEE ‘26

Less than 24 hours before the MLK Day workshop titled, “Reflections on Black-Palestinian Solidarity” was scheduled to run, registered students received an email from Dr. Stephanie Bramlett, Director of Equity and Inclusion, informing them of its cancellation. In the time since, this decision has sparked serious conversation among students and faculty, leading to a group of students petitioning for concrete answers. 

The administration’s handling of Ms. Carbonell and Dr. Madhi’s workshop was unacceptable and a blatant act of political censorship. It also provides insight into PEA’s political bias and the forces that regulate conversation on campus.

One of the biggest issues with the administration’s decision was the lack of transparency present in their communication. In this issue of The Exonian, Principal Rawson released his statement alongside the featured Editorial. In it, he presented the decision as one made to create more time necessary for careful and productive discussion around sensitive topics. There was no apology, and no explanation for why the workshop was canceled the night before it was set to run despite having been on the roster throughout MLK Day planning.

These exclusions as well as the fact that it was released through the school newspaper — as much as I love The Exonian, it’s never been or will be the most effective way to reach our community — this statement is not the best admin can do. I hope the Academy lives by the promises and values that Rawson highlighted in his statement. I also hope admin is moved to properly address their actions through a critical lens on a wider scale; send an email.

Prior to any communication from the administration, many students were left to speculate, which, considering all issues present in the statement, is still important to consider. Some believe it had to do with angry donors. Others have pointed to public outbreaks at institutions like Harvard as the type of publicity Exeter was trying to avoid. All of the information we have at the moment suggests that it was an internal decision, not informed by community pushback. It is possible that because of this, the administration’s choice to cancel was preventative, motivated by fear of anger, outrage, and bad publicity.

The Academy has been on a bit of a glass pedestal as of late. A tainted history of sexual assault cases is not fully in our distant past. Yet Phillips Exeter is as celebrated as ever, taking Niche’s most recent #1 Private High School ranking in 2023. Hoping to scorch the reputational forest as little as possible, the school decided to stomp out what they saw as a potential fire. Unfortunately, this effort to conserve public image has caused undue pain within the bounds of our own campus.

In response, students have written a letter and petition (link in the bio of @black.palestine.pea on Instagram) calling admin’s actions into question and demanding acknowledgement for the cancellation’s “disservice to communal learning.” I highly recommend reading the letter; there’s no better insight into the feelings and thoughts of students who were directly involved with the workshop.

One particularly powerful moment in the letter reads, “The Academy is demonstrating its lack of care for the multitude of students who would have found a space such as this workshop safe for their academic and curricular growth, as well as emotional support.” The letter is full of lines like this, which capture the absurdity of the school’s decision, as well as its impact on community members.

In researching this resistance, the most striking feature was how common-sense and innocuous everything was. The conversation on Phillips Exeter censorship obviously has a notoriously polarizing older cousin in the Israel-Palestine discourse. However, very little of that division spills into the grievances of students and faculty.

I spoke with senior Ayaan Akhtar, a student who was signed up for the workshop and has been very involved with the resistance effort. Akhtar was the first of over a hundred students to sign the petition. Like many others, he was caught off guard when he heard that the workshop was canceled and became involved in the search for answers. Akhtar recounted, “After further conversation with administration, it became a little more clear that it was a safety issue and how we can protect the speakers and the students involved.” Despite these seemingly good intentions, he took issue with how the administration communicated the cancellation.

Akhtar brought up a previous workshop that took place soon after the Oct. 7th attack, and further lamented the MLK workshop as a lost second step. “I think, if there’s room for discussion, talk about it. If that’s what you want to study, study it,” he said.

  By and large, freedom of education and administrative transparency are at the forefront of discussion. These are all ideas for which most of us should be able to stand, no matter our political, cultural, and social background.

And though the resistance has not been expressly political, it’s hard to separate the administration’s actions from their political context. What does censoring a workshop focused on Palestinian solidarity imply? What might the result have been if it were focused on Israeli solidarity? These questions cannot be answered based on one, isolated situation, but they’re important to keep in mind especially considering how quick the academy is to label itself as “apolitical.” Of course, this is a tactic to qualify for non-profit government recognition and the associated tax benefits. However, if right-wing organizations (namely PragerU and Turning Point USA) can claim the same 501(c) status, we can’t take such a label at face value. As per the age-old idiom: actions speak louder than words.

Some may say the cancellation was motivated by neutrality and stood to distance Phillips Exeter from politics. Ironically, the administration only involved the school by taking action in the first place. A disclaimer beside the workshop reiterating Phillips Exeter Academy’s neutrality on the Israel-Palestine issue, making it clear that anything perceived as “views expressed” belonged not to Exeter as an institution but to a subset of community members, would have been leagues more apolitical than censoring it all together. 

All they’ve done is provide a stark counterexample for the next time an “Andrew Yang-ian” speaker praises Exeter on its lack of political bias. It’s simply not possible, and not for the reasons people usually cite — not because of OMA, MLK Day, signs next to gender-inclusive bathrooms, or anything else that puts PEA, according to many, on the political left. Our school will never be apolitical because of the complex system of whatever moves administrators to make decisions like canceling the MLK workshop. We still don’t know much about that system because of the lack of transparency.

The administration has taken the first step in reconciling their mistake, but there’s still a long way to go. The wide reach, apology to the community, and promise to reform absent from Rawson’s statement are what we students must push for. I make that clarification because although several faculty members have been very outspoken on the situation, they necessarily risk their job security and livelihood in the process. To them, the administration is the boss and most faculty are, unfortunate as it is, valuable but expendable employees. As students, we hold a unique collective power that must not be overlooked.

Read the letter, and if you’re a student, consider signing the petition either by name or anonymously. If not for Palestinian solidarity, then for the notion that the administration ought not be emboldened to censor us, to take what’s important to our community from us without a consultation, explanation, or second thought.