An ‘anemic’ School Committee antisemitism response

After hearing that a brief filed with the U.S. Department of Education cited CCHS for widespread antisemitic abuse, we shook our heads in disbelief. Not in Acton. To our shock, the reports were accurate. Harassment targeting “at least seven different students across multiple social groups.” Swastikas painted on restroom walls and the skate park. Nazi salutes in the hallway. Soccer teams called Team Auschwitz and Team Hitler. Demands to see a child’s Holocaust tattoo. In the wake of a prolonged campaign of bullying against one child, removal of that child from the classroom by administrators — a solution that looks a lot like punishing the victim of the abuse rather than his abusers. The same child was eventually driven from our schools by administrators’ failure to control the situation.

So far, the superintendent has hidden behind pro forma email messages about school policies and the school’s director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging dismissed the taunt “k—” as a “microaggression.” In other words, a child who’d already been threatened by repeated harassment shouldn’t have minded being targeted by a well-known hate-driven antisemitic slur.

Since 2020, the number of antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools has surged by 434%. Rage at Israel’s attacks on Gaza has prompted a dramatic escalation of hate crimes directed at American Jews, including murders in Washington, D.C. and Boulder, Colorado. We can’t help wondering whether the brief submitted to the Department of Education will make Jewish kids in Acton safer or less safe. We can only hope that it’s the former.

Sara Laschever and Tim Riley

Fairhaven Road