Community members clash over Maine West curriculum; dozens urge board to support or review English chair Dr. Sosan Jaber

At a Maine Township High School District 207 board meeting, dozens of residents spoke during public comment about the district’s English curriculum and the role of Maine West English department chair Dr. Sosan Jaber, with speakers sharply divided between calls to defend her and requests that the district review specific assignments. Supporters said Jaber has advanced inclusive curricula and supported marginalized students; critics said some classroom comparisons and assignments are inappropriate or create safety concerns for Jewish students.

The dispute drew organized statements from local advocacy groups. Leslie Williams, identified as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence and Global Jews for Palestine, urged the board to support Jaber and to “encourage robust engagement with the uncomfortable.” Daniel Schwartz, a representative of the Chicago Jewish Alliance, said his organization and parents were concerned about assignments that use Elie Wiesel’s Night alongside contemporary conflicts, and said that approach can feel like a “dilution of the Holocaust’s unique historical gravity.”

Other public commenters raised a mix of instructional and procedural concerns. Simona Bogdan, a volunteer with the Chicago Jewish Alliance, said parents and teachers had tried internal channels without feeling heard; she raised specific issues including a unit using excerpts from Night without all students reading the full book, student-created TikTok videos she said were shared without consent, and the English department head’s attendance at controversial conferences using the school’s name. Carlos Gallo, a mental-health researcher, argued that certain curriculum choices and social-media assignments risk harming student mental health. Several speakers asked the board for clearer transparency and complaint-handling procedures.

Supporters of Jaber described her as an experienced teacher and advocate for students. Dr. Sandra Flores, a school psychologist in District 207, said she served on the hiring committee that recommended Jaber and that staff, students and parents had expressed “overwhelmingly positive, unanimous enthusiasm” for her hiring. Jenan Shahaz, a recent graduate and civil-rights attorney, said Jaber was fulfilling directives to “decolonize” the English curriculum and to include more student choice and culturally responsive material. Joseph Milbern, staff attorney at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, said Jaber had not opposed Holocaust education and urged the board to support an inclusive study of genocide to spot “warning signs” of atrocities.

Speakers disagreed on whether classroom material crossed lines into antisemitism. Several critics cited what they called insensitive comparisons and a broader pattern of political positions in class materials; several defenders said criticism amounted to attempts to silence or intimidate teachers who teach uncomfortable material and that concern for marginalized students justified curriculum changes made by the department chair.

District administrators told the audience how to submit materials and said staff would follow up. Board chair and administrators reiterated that the public-comment period was not a Q&A session; speakers were told to leave documents with Brett Clark or via the posted email for administrative follow up. No board action or vote on curriculum occurred at the meeting.

Why it matters: the exchange raises questions about curriculum oversight, student privacy for media-based assignments and the board’s complaint processes, and it illustrates heightened community tensions around how schools teach traumatic historical events and contemporary conflicts.

The board did not take formal action on curriculum at the meeting; administrators said they would review the concerns raised and staff would follow up with commenters who left contact information.