Photo from Wikimedia Commons. A Jewish girl and her parents filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey high school on March 4, alleging the school did not address anti-Semitic bullying against the student.
The New York Times reported the lawsuit stems from an April 2018 incident, when students at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) went on a school trip to the Jersey Shore. There, an unidentified male student took a photo of the words “I h8 Jews” written in sand and sent it to a group-texting chat. Another male student responded, “Yearbook cover”; an unidentified female student agreed and said she had sent the photo to her yearbook faculty adviser.
The Jewish girl, identified as Paige, told the Times she was part of the group chat and was infuriated at the photo, prompting her father to send a screenshot of the chat to MAST Principal Earl Moore. After Moore’s investigation of the incident, the two male students sent an apology to the group chat and they were suspended for four days. The female student was suspended for two days.
However, Moore told Paige’s classmates a female student had reported the incident, causing students to think Paige was a “snitch.” Paige’s classmates froze her out of social interaction. In June, Paige found a rock with the word “Adolf” written on it placed on top of a water cooler behind her desk.
“No one stood by me,” Paige told the Times.
Paige alleges that when she brought up how she was being socially ostracized, Moore told her to “worry less about friends at school and find friends in her synagogue.” Paige eventually dropped out of the school in 2019 and finished high school through homeschooling and community college classes. Her parents filed a complaint against the school to the state’s division of civil rights at the end of the 2018 school year.
The state division of civil rights investigation concluded in October that the school did not take adequate steps to address the students’ treatment of Paige following the beach incident, nor did the school address any prior instances of anti-Semitism that had occurred at the school. Paige alleges one such incident mentioned in the Times report was in 2016, when a teacher laughed after pronouncing a student’s last name Guiffre as “Jew-frey,” then saying, “I wouldn’t want a last name like that.”
Monmouth County Vocational School District Superintendent Timothy McCorkell told the Times they are “committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students that is free from harassment, intimidation and bullying, and all forms of bias and discrimination.” Moore declined to comment on the incident to the Times.
Former New York Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who runs the Americans Against Antisemitism watchdog organization, tweeted: “This story is horrifying and indicative of what’s happening in too many places. A child’s life ruined [because] of hate, [because] her school FAILED her! Most are too scared to come forward because of the consequences. But people need to come forward to fight hate!”
This story is horrifying and indicative of what’s happening in too many places. A child’s life ruined bc of hate, bc her school FAILED her!
Most are too scared to come forward because of the consequences. But people need to come forward to fight hate!https://t.co/ESdoiyqu6y
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) March 4, 2020
Forward Deputy Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon tweeted that anti-Semitism is emboldened through “people who hate Jews, and the g-d*** cowards who don’t want to be unpopular so they don’t say anything when they see it, who laugh at the ‘jokes’ or even encourage them to get approval.”
She added in a subsequent tweet, “You should be raising your children to stand up to hate. Instead, this entire community taught them to laugh along. And the victim paid the price.”
It takes two types to create the conditions where anti-Semitism thrives: people who hate Jews, and the goddamn cowards who don't want to be unpopular so they don't say anything when they see it, who laugh at the "jokes" or even encourage them to get approval.
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) March 4, 2020
You should be raising your children to stand up to hate. Instead, this entire community taught them to laugh along. And the victim paid the price – as always – while the perpetrators are at NYU and Cornell, no doubt still making Jew jokes to laughing cowards.
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) March 4, 2020
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Truly upsetting to read. It is these stories that show not only the effects of everyday #antisemitism but the effects of silence in the face of bias. We all need to step up and take a stand. For our children especially, this culture cannot be accepted.”
Truly upsetting to read. It is these stories that show not only the effects of everyday #antisemitism but the effects of silence in the face of bias. We all need to step up and take a stand. For our children especially, this culture cannot be accepted. https://t.co/ZeVKCQ7BkG
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) March 5, 2020
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