For Our Math Education Community

I just returned from Chicago, where I had privilege to speak at both NCSM and NCTM. It was a beautiful week of learning and connection. I attended some brilliant sessions. I enjoyed time with educators I already adored, and met new-to-me educators that I adore now. Meals at mediocre hotel restaurants were elevated by the best of company. After an intense few weeks, I felt myself breathing in a new rhythm.

I want to share how I launched my sessions: with an urgent message about community.

I want to start by telling you about something that happened recently. It’s important for you to know.

Two weeks ago, a math educator with a lot of hate in their heart sent inaccurate information about me, and a presentation that I gave last spring, to a doxxing website. This doxxing website then published the lies, and encouraged its 320,000 followers to harass me and call for my termination. It started out with simple internet name-calling. Trolls. People sending me photoshopped pictures of me with a Hitler mustache. But then it escalated. All of a sudden, they were sharing addresses. My school’s phone number. They posted photos of my husband, and included information about his workplace. They referenced my children. It spilled over to communities around me, and took on a life of its own outside of the internet. In addition to my employers receiving countless e-mails and even phone calls calling for me to be fired, it became deeply unsafe for me and my family. A man who harassed us on the street – called me and my children terrible names, which I assured my kids is more about him than it is about us – was arrested for shooting someone, a separate but terrifying incident.

It’s been consuming. I have had to advocate for safety with a strength I did not realize I had. One motivation for telling you this is, well.. I hope you’ll excuse the fact that I haven’t thought a lot about this presentation is the last two weeks. It won’t have all of my usual polish.

But more importantly, and I want to be clear: it continues to shock me that the hate, the lies that incited the harassment came from within the math education community. I love our community, with all my heart. This community has inspired me to grow both as an educator and as a person. And I am grateful to see all of you today. I trust that you’ll make this a space for learning.

My biggest wish is that we treat one another with respect, even when we disagree. I want us to have difficult conversations. To ask questions. To listen. To speak authentically. I don’t think anything we are going to explore today is profoundly controversial, but positioning ourselves as learners requires vulnerability. I hope that we take care of one another through this. May we all act with kindness, with sincerity, and with peace.

Thank you.