On July 15, 2024, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) informed my organization that it opened a civil rights investigation into the Dallas Independent School District (“DISD”) in response to our complaint that a student was subjected to years of “severe, pervasive and persistent harassment” solely because of his Jewish identity.

The team at StandWithUs argued that DISD violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally-funded programs such as public schools.

After months of witnessing the harassment, receiving reports of discrimination, and being offered educational training by StandWithUs, DISD is only just now (hopefully) taking antisemitism seriously — and that is only because of legal force.

Here’s what happened:

In September 2023, we sent a letter to the principal of Hillcrest High School in Dallas and the DISD Superintendent urging them to address antisemitism and ignorance at the school, and offering our support.

We described one student’s experience — being called a “dirty Jew” and a “filthy kike,” being told by classmates “Bye kike, hope the Nazis grab you tonight,” and “go back to Auschwitz, you don’t belong here.” School leadership consistently ignored or downplayed the seriousness of these incidents. One teacher told the student, “You shouldn’t let antisemitism bother you so much.” Swastikas discovered on school property were simply covered up.

Despite our letter and subsequent meetings with school leadership, DISD allowed the hostile environment to continue. After exhausting all other administrative options, we submitted our complaint to the US Department of Education. The student bravely returned to school and was barraged with mistreatment by teachers and administrators.

We recently contacted DISD to highlight this alarming retaliation, inquire about remedial steps, and again offer our support. We urged the district not to wait for an OCR investigation to do the right thing. But we never heard back.

Now that OCR is investigating, DISD is forced to utilize its resources to respond: the district’s attorneys are presumably reviewing hundreds of documents and social media posts, and its teachers and administrators are likely being contacted during their summer breaks to meet with the OCR investigator.

Our story didn’t have to be this complex and lengthy — and it shouldn’t take legal action for school districts to do the ring thing.

Here is how school districts can direct their resources to avoid the mess DISD is in now:

Teach staff about the definitions of antisemitism and procedures required to address all forms of harassment, intimidation, and bullying (“HIB”) and discrimination, and ensure that antisemitism is an explicit part of the discussion on these topics. Engage staff, bring up tough questions, and use real life examples, including those from the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Provide age-appropriate education to students about the dangers of antisemitism, including clear examples and consequences of discriminatory conduct. Teach about Jewish history and heritage the same way you teach about other ethnic and racial groups. To paraphrase Dara Horn, please don’t only teach kids about dead Jews.
If a student complains about HIB or discrimination, put it in writing and offer your immediate support. Validating feelings and showing empathy go a long way, and doing so does not mean you admit a violation of policies. Act immediately and consistently, with no double standards. Whether or not a formal complaint is submitted, check in after a few days. That is not an admission of a violation of your policies; it is simply showing concern for a student who was hurt.
If there is a larger pattern of discrimination in the district, address it head-on. Send a note to families about specific concerns of antisemitism — not just hate in general — and then immediately take concrete steps to address the problematic climate, not just the individual incidents.
Conduct investigations transparently and with urgency. Share the results in clear terms. If remedies are required, create a timeline for implementation. Follow up to review the impact of the remedies. If the issue remains unresolved, keep trying to fix it. If you hold a schoolwide assembly about antisemitism, and the next day, swastikas are drawn on desks, you have not fixed the problem.
Ensure that the group most impacted has a voice in the conversation.
If your district does not already have one, they should hire a Title VI Coordinator who will ensure meaningful and equal compliance.

There are a few weeks until school starts again. Let’s encourage our districts to use that time wisely, and to use their precious resources towards protecting all students, including those who are Jewish and/or Israeli.

Jenna Statfeld Harris is a Senior Staff Attorney, specializing in K-12 education, at the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department. She is the lead attorney in the DISD case.

The post A Dallas School District Is Being Investigated for Antisemitism; Here’s How Other Schools Can Avoid That Fate first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Three progressive US lawmakers are facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly “inciting” anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.

The lawsuit, filed by five anonymous students, names Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Jamaal Bowman (NY) — all members of the so-called “Squad” of far-left members of the House of Representatives — as key instigators of the “extreme and outrageous” anti-Israel protests on the Ivy League campus. The lawsuit also implicates nearly a dozen pro-Palestinian groups.

“The Gaza Encampment was extreme and outrageous conduct. It was illegal. It violated university rules. Its occupants harassed, followed, physically blocked, intimidated, and bullied Jewish students,” the lawsuit says. 

Starting in mid-April, dozens of student organizers at Columbia University commandeered the South Lawn and erected an encampment in protest of Israel’s military campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The students vowed not to dismantle the encampment until the university agreed to boycott and divest from all Israel-related entities, including divesting from companies that do business with the Jewish state and cutting ties with Israeli universities.  

The demonstration, which included chants in support of Hamas and calls for Israel’s destruction, quickly grew in numbers amid allegations that Columbia wasn’t doing enough to punish rampant antisemitism on campus.

The lawsuit argues that the three lawmakers were among the “outside champions” who encouraged the protests. The three progressives issued statements defending the at-times violent protesters and criticizing law enforcement. 

“If any kid is hurt tonight, responsibility will fall on the mayor and [university] presidents,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X/Twitter on April 30.

Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, and Omar each visited the encampments at Columbia University in a show of support for the campus agitators. Omar suggested that Jewish students critical of the Columbia University anti-Israel protests were “pro-genocide,” sparking a firestorm of outrage. Bowman defended the anti-Israel protests as “peaceful” and said he was “outraged” at Columbia administrators for calling in police officers to protect the campus.

Two of the five claimants in the lawsuit are Jewish, according to the New York Post. 

An anonymous Columbia Jewish sophomore told the Post that he “did not feel safe” on campus. 

“During the protests, I witnessed numerous offensive and antisemitic signs and messages, including antisemitic skunk posters with the Star of David,” the Columbia student recalled.

The Columbia protests drew widespread criticism for rhetoric that many observers considered antisemitic. Student activists openly waved flags representing the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups. A group of Columbia student protesters made headlines for chanting “burn Tel Aviv to the ground.” Several campus groups issued statements categorically banning “Zionist” students from membership. In May, police revealed that anti-Israel protesters who occupied an academic building at Columbia had signs that read “death to America,” death to Israel,” and “long live the intifada” — the last of which refers to a violent Palestinian uprising.

In response, several prominent Columbia Jewish alumni have vowed to no longer donate funds to the Ivy League university. The US Congress summoned Columbia President Minouche Shafik to testify on the alleged antisemitic campus climate at the university. The Committee on Education and the Workforce initiated an investigation into antisemitism at Columbia.

“In a civilized community, one does not call for the obliteration of a major metropolitan area, praise terrorists, or threaten death and destruction upon our classmates and their families, friends, and coreligionists,” the lawsuit reads.

The claimants allege that the campus agitators and their supporters “not only consciously disregarded the rights of others, but the impact on the rights of others was the point of the protest: the more disruption [they] could cause for the university and the [students], the more leverage they thought they would have for their agenda.”

Omar, Bowman, and Ocasio-Cortez have all routinely lambasted Israel and called for the US to lessen its support to the Jewish state.

The post US Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, Omar Slapped With Lawsuit for ‘Inciting’ Columbia University Anti-Israel Encampment first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

North Carolina State University (NCSU) has settled a civil rights complaint which accused school officials of failing to respond to a series of antisemitic incidents in which a Jewish student was allegedly subjected to bullying, violent threats, and doxxing.

Brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the complaint alleged that the Jewish plaintiff was abused by her peers for supporting Israel. Anti-Zionist students, it said, frequently uttered threats while walking past her on campus and also published her picture and private information online.

The alleged misconduct wasn’t limited to students. In another incident, the administration told the student nothing could be done when, in her first week on campus, she discovered swastika graffiti all over the walls of a tunnel on campus.

As part of the settlement, an outcome achieved during an “early” mediation process administered by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the university agreed to update its anti-discrimination policies to adhere to a 2019 Trump administration executive order which recognized anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, include antisemitism in its programming on racial and ethnic hatred, and hold regular meetings with Jewish organizations on campus. The university will also base its handling of future antisemitic incidents on North Carolina’s Shalom Act (House Bill 942), which explicitly refers to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

“The Brandeis Center’s settlement with NCSU represents a significant step forward in our efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses,” Brandeis Center chairman and founder Kenneth Marcus said in a statement. “This settlement paves the way for meaningful change on both NCSU’s campus and on college campuses throughout the country.”

He continued, “The settlement agreement includes a commitment to abide by Executive Order 13899 and North Carolina Statutes, including North Carolina House Bill 942, which explicitly references the IHRA definition of antisemitism and its contemporary examples for combating antisemitism. We commend the university for its commitment to include references to these important tools in the settlement agreement and in their revised anti-discrimination policy.”

Brandeis Center senior counsel Robin Pick added, “NC State has the opportunity to be a leader and a model for other universities in the fight against antisemitism.”

Other universities have recently settled legal complaints prompted by allegedly poor, and potentially illegal, responses to antisemitic incidents.

In July, New York University (NYU) agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of money to settle a lawsuit brought by three students who described the university’s approach to handling antisemitism as “deliberate indifference.” In resolving the case, NYU avoided a lengthy trial which would have revealed who and which office received but failed to address numerous reports that NYU students and faculty “repeatedly abuse, malign, vilify, and threaten Jewish students with impunity.”

In May, Columbia University settled a lawsuit which accused President Minouche Shafik of fostering a hostile learning environment by appeasing pro-Hamas rioters who convulsed the campus with unauthorized demonstrations for weeks.

One university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has managed to defeat a lawsuit prompted by campus antisemitism. Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the university refused to enforce rules which prohibit discrimination when Jews were victims. That same judge, a Democratic appointee and former political operative, will determine the fate of another lawsuit against Harvard University which makes similar accusations.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post North Carolina State University Settles Antisemitism Complaint first appeared on Algemeiner.com.