Former Campus Radicals Now Teach Your Children

COMMENTARY Education

Former Campus Radicals Now Teach Your Children

Oct 19, 2023 4 min read

Commentary By

Jay P. Greene, PhD @jaypgreene

Senior Research Fellow, Center for Education Policy

Jason Bedrick @JasonBedrick

Research Fellow, Center for Education Policy

Students from Hunter College participate during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on October 12, 2023. Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

People saying ignorant and hateful things is the price of free speech. But have you ever wondered what all these campus radicals do when they graduate?

In total, 38% of the kinds of people who once marched around campus chanting about decolonization go on to teaching careers.

They have moved their revolutionary struggle to the classroom, where they can recruit the next generation of campus radicals.

After Hamas butchered hundreds of Israeli civilians and raped and injured thousands more, dozens of student groups at Harvard, Columbia, and other elite universities did the unthinkable: blaming the victims and expressing support for those committing unspeakable atrocities. The statement issued by a coalition of 31 student organizations at Harvard held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

At Tufts, Students for Justice in Palestine issued a statement praising Hamas “liberation fighters” for “show[ing] the creativity necessary to take back stolen land.” That “creativity” the Tuft’s group praised included gang rape, mass murder, and even the beheading of babies.

People saying ignorant and hateful things is the price of free speech. But have you ever wondered what all these campus radicals do when they graduate? Surely spending their time in college spouting vile nonsense can’t lead to jobs that shape the future of our society. Apparently, it can—because many go on to careers in a variety of fields. The largest number of them enter education and teach your children.

Academia has an extremism problem. The watchdog group Canary Mission has identified and created online profiles for more than 1,300 student radicals over the past decade. These radicals are among the worst of the worst.

>>> Don’t “Decolonize” the Classroom

As Canary Mission puts it, they “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” While in college, they disrupted events sponsored by Jewish student groups, agitated for the release of convicted terrorists, accused the U.S. and Israel of settler colonialism, and called for the boycott, disinvestment, and sanction of Israel. Some of the campus radicals identified by Canary Mission wrote online things such as “Jews are our dogs” and, in Arabic, “may Allah obliterate the Jews.”

What do these hateful ideologues do after obtaining their diplomas? To find out, we searched for the career histories of a sample of 300 former campus radicals identified by Canary Mission. More than a quarter of them are in higher education, either as graduate instructors or as professors. One-tenth of them work in schools for younger children.

In total, 38% of the kinds of people who once marched around campus chanting about decolonization go on to teaching careers. This is more than double the 16% who pursue careers as activists in advocacy organizations. Teaching pays better and offers a larger captive audience.

According to Canary Mission, one of the campus radicals whose career we tracked was involved in “violently disrupting an event hosted by Students Supporting Israel on the UCLA campus” while a group of protesters chanted the genocidal slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” She is now a graduate student teaching courses at that same university. Another campus radical we examined wrote a piece alleging, according to Canary Mission, “that Zionist Jews bankroll nearly all of American politics.” He now teaches literature courses at an Ivy League university.

The Hamas-loving radicals are in your children’s elementary and secondary schools too. While a student, one campus radical tweeted: "I feel like the Hamas they televise is as real as the tooth fairy" and "I hate myself almost as much as I hate Israel :)." That Canary Mission alum now works as a “behavior analyst” for a school district in Illinois. Another campus radical who we tracked is now teaching high school in Maryland. While in college, he praised Rasmea Odeh, a terrorist convicted for killing two Israeli students in a supermarket bombing, as a “true Palestinian icon.” Imagine being a Jewish student in this Maryland teacher’s class.

>>> Chief Diversity Officers Harm the Students They Say They Help

Another 15% of former campus radicals work in healthcare as doctors, dentists, and other therapists. Let’s hope they remember their oath to do no harm. The government is another welcoming occupation, employing 6% of Canary Mission alums, including at least one elected official.

Like Jerry Rubin, who went from being tried as one of the Chicago Seven to being a stockbroker, 24% of former campus radicals have pursued careers in business. They are management consultants, lawyers, and corporate executives. Having profiles online documenting their extremist statements and actions in college appears to have posed little hindrance to gaining employment with companies such as McKinsey, Disney, or Amazon.

Fortunately, employers are starting to wake up to the hateful radicals in their midst. Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square, posted on X that he had been “asked by a number of CEOs if [Harvard] would release a list of the members of each of the Harvard organizations that have issued the letter assigning sole responsibility for Hamas’ heinous acts to Israel” in order to ensure “that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members.”

Some campus radicals are already losing job offers. After NYU Law School Student Bar Association President Ryna Workman issued a statement declaring her “unwavering and absolute solidarity” with those engaging in “resistance” against Israel, she lost a cushy job offer from the law firm of Winston & Strawn.

People shouldn’t be held responsible forever for their youthful indiscretions. But there is no evidence that these former campus radicals have renounced their foolish ways. Instead, it appears that like Bill Ayers or Angela Davis, they have simply moved their revolutionary struggle to the classroom, where they can recruit the next generation of campus radicals.

This piece originally appeared in Restoring America by the Washington Examiner