Statement from Erikson President Mariana Souto-Manning

As a graduate school in early childhood established six decades ago during the Civil Rights Movement, Erikson Institute is—and always will be—grounded in the principle of equitable opportunity for all young children. Over the years, as gun violence has become the leading killer of children and youth in the U.S., we have evolved all our programming to be trauma informed. Our unfortunate reality is that every teacher, social worker and child development specialist will at some point in their career work with a child impacted by interpersonal or mass violence.

Children suffer in war no matter where they live or what side of the given conflict they are on, and Erikson strongly believes that all children have a right to feel safe. The reawakening of the war in the Middle East has brought to the forefront, once again, that children are among the largest casualties of a complex geopolitical situation.

In response to ongoing requests from faculty, staff and students for Erikson to address the impact of war on young children, and in the interest of academic freedom to examine and debate current events, I agreed to Erikson hosting a gathering that was intended to address children and violence across cultures, including the United States. The intent was to share information, insights, resources and support for the Erikson staff, faculty, students and alumni who seek to support families impacted by violence.

I regret that the event content was unbalanced—the exact opposite of what we had hoped to provide. And I want to be clear. Erikson unequivocally denounces antisemitism in any and all forms under implicit and explicit language. I sincerely apologize for the individual and communal harm caused by the event.

This has been a deeply painful lesson for me as a leader. I have learned that we must be vigilant in the midst of our good intentions to address complex human tragedies and guard against bias. In any group of people there will always be multiple perspectives and individual experiences that factor into how information is received.

To begin to repair the harm caused by Erikson’s event, I will work with external and internal stakeholders to continue the dialogue about how to support children experiencing extreme violence with another gathering in the coming months featuring perspectives and speakers who were left out of the first one, with a focus on restorative justice in which dialogue is equitably managed to support true learning and deepened understanding of diverse perspectives. I am looking forward to hosting Rabbi Meir Muller to Erikson this fall, an event in the works long before this panel, to engage with the community in a dialogue about countering antisemitism and racism in the early childhood classroom.

At Erikson, we know that learning is a developmental process, and that mistakes are part of that process. We are learning from this, and I am grateful to all who care deeply for our institution and who courageously spoke up when they felt we were not fulfilling our promise. Holding each other accountable is the hallmark of a strong relationship. It takes everyone, working together, to realize Erikson’s vision of a better future for all young children, their families and communities.