It began on a Wednesday morning as a routine aviation story: a Flydubai jetliner bound from Dubai to Tel Aviv suddenly lost altitude, broadcast the universal emergency code 7700, then switched to 7500, the code for unlawful interference, before turning toward the Saudi city of Tabuk and landing safely. But before the day was over, that basic sequence had been folded into a dozen different stories, each shaped by the outlet telling it. Arabic- and Farsi-language newsrooms across the region opened their coverage with the same flight data, but the narratives quickly diverged. Some stayed close to the official airline…

I’ve spent most of my life in classrooms—as a teacher, as someone who trained other teachers, and as a consultant who has walked through schools across the country. So when I hear the phrase “dog whistle,” I don’t only think about race, though that’s often how it’s used. A dog whistle can also be a quiet, vicious kind of propaganda aimed at public schools and the people who work in them. It’s designed to scare parents, to make them believe their children are in danger simply by walking through a schoolhouse door. I’ve watched this happen for years, and it…