The Colorado school that facilitates student antisemitism

It’s a story you may have missed, as I did while I was on vacation, but catching up with my reading, I must admit that this one shocked me to the core – probably because it was such a blatant occurrence of child abuse which, by all accounts, seems to have been almost ignored by the school where it happened.

The incident involved the strangling of a Jewish eighth-grader at Southern Hills Middle School in Boulder, CO who was assaulted by another student, using the charging cord of a laptop, lassoing it around his neck and dragging him backwards as he sat in a chair. Calling the boy, a disgusting Jewish slur, this was hadn’t been the first time he experienced antisemitic bullying. 

In that same school, a game was being played by the students called “Jew touch tag,” where Jews were called dirty and contaminated. 

While all this seems unthinkable, the school, rather than suspending the perpetrator for multiple assaults, instead sought to separate the two students by moving the victim around, accommodating the bully.  

The Jewish child was encouraged to leave his classes early in order to avoid conflict. It’s reported that he was also prevented from attending a school trip which apparently one of them had to forfeit. 

For most of us, the first reaction to hearing such an appalling story is to ask where were the teachers, principal, guidance counselors, and, especially, the parents? 

According to reports, the Jewish parents were aware that their son was being serious harassed, but “despite the family’s pleas for help, the school district failed to effectively address it, a clear violation of Title VI in the Civil Rights Act.”

Most of us would have camped out at the principal’s office, screaming bloody murder about repeated antisemitic incidents perpetrated on their child, but all we read is that the student stopped wearing his Star of David necklace and made sure not to speak about his ethnicity.

Who thought that those measures would put an end to the hatred and bigotry that was in the heart of other students, who didn’t want to share their classroom with a Jew?

And how did this story not get to the staff who should have then wasted no time reporting it to the police, calling in the parents and immediately suspending their child? 

If this troubled student was violently acting out, what was to stop him from doing the same to other students he doesn’t like? Of course, if injury or death were to occur, the school would be legally liable for criminal negligence. 

Weren’t other students witnesses to the physical and verbal attacks suffered by this boy. Were they able to watch such sadistic cruelty without feeling the need to report it? And if so, does it not reveal a profound lack of moral and ethical judgment on their part? 

Sadly, the Boulder Valley School District is not the only locale that is seeing the breakdown of societal values, horribly impacting Jewish students these days as antisemitic sentiment spreads like a cancer. 

I have personally heard of specific cases where Jewish students in Montreal public schools were forced to transfer to private Jewish schools after having experienced constant bullying. 

None of this is new to The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which has reported that “incidents of antisemitic bullying in public schools have surged in recent days, manifesting as identity-based harassment, cyberbullying and physical assault.  This includes harassment, slurs, Heil Hitler salutes, swastika graffiti and tearing off religious items that are worn.”  

Similar issues have been documented in Berkeley, CA, Perth and Melbourne, Australia, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Teaneck, Bergenfield, and Englewood, New Jersey, the London area, Hampshire, Essex, Bristol, Manchester, Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa and York Region District in Canada and Germany, just to name a few.

In the case of Boulder, CO, it took involvement by the ADL before this incident got the media attention that it deserved, accompanied by the demand that the “U.S. Department of Education require the district to take steps to comply with Title VI and ensure that this student and all Jewish students feel safe and protected.”

The school district’s response was so feebly worded that it makes anyone realize that their lack of a zero-tolerance policy, when it comes to antisemitic incidents, helped to create an environment that facilitated the ongoing attacks, making school attendance for Jewish students intolerable. 

It’s hard to come to any other conclusion when the incidents were obviously known, to the point that the staff sought to separate the two students rather than confront the intolerable behavior in an acceptable manner.

But the question must also be asked – why was the victimized child the one who not only suffered the abuse but also was made to feel as if his presence was undesirable, by being told to isolate himself from others when told to go home earlier than everyone else?

What kind of education is being given when religious symbols must be avoided at all costs for fear of physical harm? And who thinks that lessons in tolerance or depictions of historical tragedies, surrounding Jew-hatred should not have been part of the curriculum in a school where pervasive and disturbing incidents were systematically occurring?

It is clear that parents of students are either unaware that their own children are expressing and acting out malicious and hateful sentiments towards Jewish students or simply repeating what they are hearing at home. Either way, the educators, who assume responsibility for the well-being of all students, must be aware that these types of incidents are taking place at their school.

To downplay them or seek to find a temporary accommodation is no way to deal with a virulent sickness that is in their midst. As the former principal of an elementary and middle-school, I would suspend all classes for at least a week, at which time I would bring in speakers to present real-life stories of Jewish persecution which took place throughout history. 

I would present actual footage, and I would have each child prepare an essay, outlining what they learned from what they saw. Finally, I would compel parents to pledge to follow-up at home with such discussions.

Schools that do less are just facilitating the hatred while they turn a blind eye to the rot that is festering inside their doors.