DOE finds “pervasive” antisemitism in California school

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Repeated swastika graffiti and other antisemitic incidents at a Carmel Unified School District school created a hostile environment for Jewish students, the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation found on Friday.

The complaints against the unnamed California school pertained to 15 incidents during the 2021-2022 school year and 2023-2024 school year.

The school saw repeated incidents of swastikas graffitied in the bathrooms in 2021. In a highly redacted incident, one student had somehow put swastikas on the bare skin of another. In the same year, a student reported receiving a ruler with a swastika and the “n-word” scrawled on it. The measuring device was then passed around the class. In 2022, swastikas and an “SS” logo had been drawn or etched onto desks in two classrooms.

In the 2023-2024 school year, a student reportedly told another that he wanted to “Kill all Jews and burn them in their homes.” A student drew a swastika in a class but claimed not to know what the symbol meant when confronted by staff. Another student drew a swastika as part of a Nazi leader Adolf Hitler game, which led to a discussion with the assistant principal about how the topic was not appropriate for games. A supervisor found further swastika graffiti in a bathroom stall and bench that year.

School district did not keep records
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) said that its investigation was impeded by the district’s lack of record keeping, which created a gap in records for the 2022-2023 year. It was likely, according to OCR that more incidents had occurred that year and possibly others but that there were no records about them kept.

Despite the lack of records, the OCR said that the frequency at which documented antisemitic incidents occurred showed that such conduct was pervasive and not isolated.

The District claimed that it didn’t receive any formal complaints, and no students reported feeling harassed or subjected to a hostile environment in 2021-2022, but students and administrators expressed a desire to change the school culture by implementing a joint Anti-Hate Speech Task Force. The school did not implement any of the strategies proposed by the team. The district also failed to adequately respond to the incidents in 2023-2024.

“The District failed to take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to eliminate a known hostile environment for students of shared Jewish ancestry, prevent its recurrence, and remedy its effects,” read the report.