Effective Wednesday, the only tweets emanating from Evanston/Skokie School District 65 will be from birds on the roof of school system headquarters.
In a message posted on Twitter itself, the district says it will no longer be active on the platform because Twitter is no longer a “productive or secure avenue for engagement.”
While the name of new Twitter owner Elon Musk was not mentioned in the statement, the district says “Given recent events … (w)e believe the use of Twitter now has greater potential to cause further harm to already marginalized students and families….”
The move away from Twitter originated with the district’s communications staff.
Director Melissa Messinger tells Evanston Now that “we don’t feel the platform is in the best interest of the community.”
According to the Washington Post, “In the hours after Musk took over, Twitter experienced an influx of racist and antisemitic postings ….”
The Post also says that more than a third of Twitter’s top 100 advertising clients have stopped advertising on the site, at least for now.
District 65 remains active on other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. There is also the district website and Fast Five community newsletter that residents can get information about their school system.
Does District 65 really think Instagram and Facebook are safe and viable platforms?
Instagram promotes the sexualization of children and Facebook is filled with misinformation and hate speech.
This announcement sounds more like a political statement then anything else.
It begs the question as to why District 65 was on Twitter in the first place, but one wonders what it is in free speech that they fear.
I wish that District 65 would concentrate their energy on providing our children with a quality education, raising their horrific test scores and improving poor Great Schools ratings instead of silly political grandstanding.
I agree with David
A public school has absolutely no right to make such a strident political statement
They certainly do not speak for me – their taxpayer
WOW!—-such a strong bold move by D65 administration—-a truly momentous event in public school history!—-they really showed Elon who’s boss didn’t they—-in the meantime I was able to align myself with an organizational valued BLT for lunch
Classic late failure stage of leadership when they promote meaningless self-serving awards and leaving Twitter, instead of the difficult and meaningful things that matter to our school system, like fixing crumbling schools, stopping the hemorrhaging of quality staff, or pairing down bloated middle administrators, or maybe even putting resources together to help kids learn. If you don’t think this announcement about leaving Twitter isn’t virtue signaling, then you don’t realize they could have left Twitter without sending out a press release – doing the right thing without having to get credit for it.
So brave.
Stop playing politics. Educate. Educate. Educate. And why are they still silent on the abusive corner of Facebook using D65 in their title? Seems like they support people who agree with them over speech or anti-abusive practices.
So incredibly brave. The crack staff at D65, aside from fleecing the Evanston taxpayer on the regular, only skill is turning up the virtue signal so bright that it can be seen from space. They have tweeted once in the last month. This earth shattering announcement of their departure had a total of one like a full 24 hours after its posting.
I say that’s all they are capable of because if you are paying attention, they certainly can’t handle building a school, having students of color perform at a level better than the state (despite every other demo doing better than state avg in both math and reading), hang on to teachers, or students. The biggest windfalls have gone to consultants that seem awfully close to Horton, surrounding private schools with their massive enrollment bump, and his incompetent friends that land six figure salaries. Meanwhile the buildings that actually exist are crumbling. The covid money was spent on miracles. The miracle is all of your tax dollars are evaporating in thin air with nothing to show for it.
If there was any actual real concern about negative behavior in an online forum they’d shoot that dreadful cesspool that is the d65 parents page on Facebook into the sun. But if they did that, they’d lose the ability of their cult members of bullying anyone that remotely questions the intentions of dear leader or anyone in the flock. Without that vile group, how would they hand out sentences for fake hate crimes or promote their fake awards for PR and other such nonsense.
Tell your friends to show up and vote in this next school board election or they will absolutely run this into the ground.
Outcomes for BIPOC students are worse since Horton arrived, but at least dying professional educator associations are helping to prop him up with ridiculous awards.
And now we know how the district feels about a company that has nothing to do with their core purpose.
I’m guessing the BIPOC 6th graders at King Arts who can’t read are really grateful.
Btw, that Post article was later shown to be attributed to bots a small group of actors were triggering for their own purposes. Twitter adjusted the algo and that spike came right back down. Can’t you all see we are all being manipulated?Both sides. Stop being sheep.
Another silly PR move.
I think it’s spot on move; I think kids have fallen behind during covid and we’re dealing with fall out from that. So patience everyone, there is a plan. It is a good one and will reveal itself how it does. Give the administration some time. You expect them to turn everything around in three years? More like six years before you begin to eve start helping what COVID did to our students. Patience is a virtue.
Give me a break. What Covid did to our students?! You mean the concerted decisions to keep kids out of schools at D65 made, I assume. This was a decision – thousands of schools both public and private who brought kids back to school in the fall of 2020. The massive decline in learning is to this inept board and administration and their constant and steady commitment to throw kids learning under the bus. Give it 6 years and there will be permanent damage. Enough.
As I watch my talented coworkers quit and my students struggle without adequate resources, I can rest easy knowing that d65 is no longer associating with Twitter. Watch out Elon!