The teacher activists who organized alongside Hannah Gann want accountability on behalf of the vulnerable students who believed the Philadelphia School District teacher was someone she was not.
“We hope the district will take the necessary steps to hold Hannah accountable for the harm she caused, prevent any further harm to students, and provide meaningful support to the students and school community as they process what occurred,” the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philly Educators for Palestine said in a statement.
Gann, who works at the Workshop School, a project-based high school in West Philadelphia, claimed for years that she was Palestinian and Black. After direct questioning, Gann admitted she is a white, Jewish woman and the relative of Israeli settlers.
Ultimately, Gann acknowledged she is “a white woman of significant privilege and wealth.”
Gann was a key member of both organizing groups — which are made up of district teachers but unaffiliated with the district. She led teach-ins after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, decrying “scholasticide” in Gaza and defending Keziah Ridgeway, a Philadelphia teacher who was disciplined by the district over her private, pro-Palestinian social media posts. (Ridgeway has since sued the district, alleging anti-Islamic bias.)
Gann’s deception has earned national attention and comparisons to Rachel Dolezal, the scholar and former NAACP official who had claimed to be Black. Racial Justice Organizing Coalition and Philly Educators for Palestine members, in the statement, said they understood why the matter is receiving attention, “but for us, it is not a spectacle. The emotional harm is real and palpable for the people who knew, trusted and worked alongside, and learned from Hannah.”
Most important, the Philadelphia activists who once claimed Gann as a friend and colleague said, the focus needs to be on her students.
Gann remains employed by the district, teaching students at a majority-Black school who viewed her as a trusted adult, someone who helped them create community and feel protected, the Philly organizers said.
“Finding out that someone who taught them about identity and belonging had been dishonest about her own identity could deeply damage their trust in her and other adults,” the committee said.
The school system has said it does not comment on personnel matters, but noted that it made support available to any Workshop student or employee who needed it.
Blackness, the groups said, “cannot be donned as a costume. Black and Palestinian identities, grief, and genocide are not identities or experiences that anyone has the right to adopt for credibility, access or belonging.”
Gann “could’ve easily been an invaluable ally to these communities without lying about who she was,” the groups said.
Gann has not commented beyond a 10-minute video posted to her Instagram account in which she admitted to the deception.
“I hid my family’s background from everyone in Philly and also hid from the people in my own family what I was doing,” she said, adding that she believed in the causes she fought for despite her deception.
Gann said she “allowed half-truths and obfuscations to grow into outright lies.”
