School leaders ‘inexcusably failed’ to take action against antisemitism
CPS’s leadership has a responsibility to take timely, effective, and meaningful actions to combat these acts of hate and prevent their recurrence.
I was deeply troubled to learn of the ongoing and egregious antisemitic acts at the Acton Public Schools (CPS) alleged in the Anti-Defamation League complaint and described by others. As a Jewish woman who grew up in Iowa during the 1970s and early ’80s, I experienced antisemitism at school from a young age through high school. I know from personal experience the devastating and lasting pain that such hate can cause.
CPS’s leadership has a responsibility to take timely, effective, and meaningful actions to combat these acts of hate and prevent their recurrence. That apparently has not happened. Instead, even after being on notice that antisemitic acts were taking place within the district, the CPS leadership inexcusably failed to take timely and essential remedial measures once it was discovered that further antisemitic acts — this time involving the placement of a swastika on the campus of the high school — had taken place. If immediate, appropriate, and comprehensive measures are not taken, I fear that these antisemitic acts will not only continue, but intensify.
The CPS leadership’s recent statement that the district does not tolerate antisemitism and chronicling the steps taken to address the problem rings hollow given the continued missteps by the CPS leadership. Such failures, even if unintentional, compromise the safety of all students and foster a culture of intolerance and hate.
Sadly, I have lost confidence that the school district’s leadership will appropriately address and prevent antisemitism and discrimination from taking place at CPS.
Deborah Dorfman
Lang Street
