Award winning foreign correspondent Greg Dobbs from Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab (CELL)  came to speak about the Middle East and preventing terrorism at Eaglecrest High School. According to the CELL’s FAQ page their mission is to prevent terrorism through education, empowerment and engagement. Although Dobbs’ insight and experience was valid, his approach to this topic was confusing to some students and staff.

Social studies teacher Dave Palmer attended the counterterrorism speech with most of his AP human geography students. Dobbs came to speak because of the connections between counterterrorism and the AP human geography curriculum.

 “The topics of conflict, refugees and terrorism are critical concepts that AP human geography students are expected to understand, but are not easy topics to master. In order to develop a deep understanding of these topics requires a willingness to have courageous conversations about complex and challenging issues,” replied Palmer.

AP human geography student reflected on their experience

Andrea Kaiser commented on her experience “ I got a lot of information on the Syrian refugee crisis and all the different problems going on in the Middle East”

“I learned a lot from him because he brought a new perspective to my mindset because I didn’t know about terrorism.” responded Jenna Munro

“I found that terrorists aren’t only people who look different from us, they are people who are amongst us.” replied Maddie Baca

In regards of Dobbs’ point of view Adair commented, “I thought that from the point of view of a news reporter he provided basic information about events happening around the world,” Adair continued. “Whether I agreed or disagreed doesn’t matter because they were his points. I thought he spread his views of the world based on what he believed and the CELL, but I mean my views are going to be personally different.”

Dobbs’ points were relevant but his approach was misleading. Dobbs’ speech was centered around terrorism but not how to prevent it. Dobbs spoke to the audience about his experiences as a journalist in foreign countries and not on how to prevent terrorism. Students and staff who attended Dobbs’ speech were under the impression that he would be talking about counter terrorism and how to practice that as high school students. He was focused on terrorism in Middle Eastern countries but he never explained what we could do to prevent it other than being aware as citizens. “He was really just focused on the countries he visited and their government,” said Hanna Alemu.

During the question and answer part of the speech, Lauren Myli asked Dobbs, “Why’s the media so quick to call people of color and Arab descent a terrorist when something bad happens, but when a white person, like the Las Vegas shooter, commits a crime like that, they aren’t called a terrorist?”

“(He) didn’t really give me an answer, but at the same time I understand because there isn’t really a right answer to that,” replied Myli.

The event left some infuriated because of how Dobbs approached the situation. An incident occurred where Dobbs told a Hijabi Muslim student that it was “good you’re wearing a peace sign.” He said the statement as if being a Muslim and wearing a peace sign were supposed to contradict each other.

When Dobbs connected Islam and the peace sign many of the students were upset. “Although I am not Muslim, I felt offended because he called her out, and basically assumed that if she was not wearing the peace sign that she wasn’t a peaceful person,” said Jallenae Abraham.

“He acted really surprised that she was wearing a peace sign. He was genuinely surprised” said Lara Thompson.

“He could be better at answering questions. Some of questions he did answer became slightly offensive and he stepped out of line and brought his political views into it. I feel like that wasn’t fair to the student body and it wasn’t fair to especially the student he targeted,”  said Vani Kapoor.

This was not the only incident where Dobbs has made controversial comments. According to Med Media, the student voice of MSU Denver, when Dobbs was answering questions, he pointed at MSU Denver student Melanie Townsend and said, “‘Are you Nigerian?’

Townsend looked around in confusion. ‘Me?’ Dobbs said, ‘Yes. I only ask because you’re, you’re black.’ Townsend replied ‘no’. He then proceeded to say: ‘Nigerians are the rudest people. They would just as soon steal your wallet as speak to you.”’ This information was accessed on December 8/2017: https://www.mymetmedia.com/news/controversial-comments-overshadow-greg-dobbs-lecture/

Throughout the event Dobbs touched on many issues regarding terrorism but never settled on a sound argument on how to prevent terrorism. He spoke on some political issues surrounding American policies and the Middle East, but never spoke on how effective they were in countering terrorism. The speech felt a little sparse at times and left people wanting to know more. Palmer said there are connections between the topics Dobbs touched on “There are numerous connections to our course and Mr. Dobbs knowledge and expertise on these topics allowed our students to develop a much deeper understanding of the events occurring in the Middle East and North Korea.”

“I wish he would’ve elaborated more on what he thinks we should do to stop terrorism. He seemed like he didn’t want to give his opinion,” said Abraham.  

Reflecting on how we can stop terrorism, Adair said, “You can’t say ‘I’ll tell you how to stop the world’s problems’, that’s not realistic. I think his attitude was to be aware and be leaders because you’re leaders of the future, I thought that was a good message for students.”

Many people got different messages from the speaker. In regards to whether Dobbs will be or should be invited to speak at Eaglecrest next year, Alyssa Benishek said show would “feel indifferent because now that I know what’s going on, I don’t really see a purpose in like going again for me but for sophomores and freshmans who are learning about other countries it would be beneficial.”

Adair said, “I don’t know… I think that there’s some value in it.” Adair continued, “I think you have to take any kind of media information that you get and process it and then you have to know where the message is coming from, so if students can do that then there’s some value in it.”

After reflecting about the event Lara Thompson said, “Actually he doesn’t have to come back. It’s okay, he could stay where he’s at.”

“I think he needs to keep his political views outside of a high school” said Vani Kapoor.

Kara Cassini, social studies teacher, declined to comment.