Complaint filed for violation of Civil Rights Act to Ministry of Education... Explosive threats and fireworks attacks in front of homes have occurred
Criticizing the lukewarm response of faculty and staff and the Office of Education, "We urge the establishment of specific and systematic measures to prevent recurrence"
An incident of extreme anti-Semitic hatred and bullying against Jewish students has occurred at a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland, causing shock. As a Jewish rights group submitted a formal complaint to the U.S. federal government, the controversy appears to be growing rapidly.
On the 20th, the human rights group ‘The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law’ requested that the U.S. investigate the anti-Semitic acts suffered by Orthodox Jewish students and the school board’s poor response at Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland on the 20th. They announced that they had filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under the federal Department of Education.
According to the complaint, the student suffered constant harassment from classmates, including insulting remarks like "dirty Jews" and coin toss, from his time at Northwood High School. The student, unable to withstand the continued abuse, transferred to nearby Montgomery Blair High School, but the insults and hateful expressions were found to intensify even after the transfer.
The perpetrators maliciously spread the victim's plans to study in Israel, spread rumors of him enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and branded them "guardians of genocide" and "Zionists," forming a group at the school level. led to bullying. Anti-Semitic graffiti was continuously posted on the walls of the school, and it was reported that so-called ‘anti-Zionist ideology testing’ was carried out targeting Jewish students.
The situation reached its extreme last April. While the victim was participating in the location-sharing school game 'Senior Assassin', he received a bomb threat from a caller ID-blocking call saying, "Dirty Zionist, I will blow you up." It is reported that an actual firecracker exploded in front of the house immediately after the phone call was disconnected, and the victim and her younger siblings had to hide in extreme fear.
After this incident, the victim suffered from severe mental trauma and ended up giving up going to school. Sarah Golabek-Goldman, legal director of the Brandeis Center, expressed outrage, saying, "The victim was completely deprived of his normal school days and adolescence," and "It was an incident that left an irreversible and deep scar on a person's life."
This complaint is intended to determine whether the MCPS school board violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.The provision specifies the obligation of educational institutions receiving pension support to protect students from discrimination and harassment based on race, skin color, and national origin.
A teacher at the site said that the school recognized the seriousness of the situation and communicated with the Office of Education, but pointed out the lukewarm and confusing response of the Education Department, saying, "We received mixed guidance from the Office of Education regarding the school's jurisdiction and scope of response."
Director Golabek-Goldman said, "It is a one-time punishment for an individual incident." “It must not stop,” he emphasized, adding, “There is an urgent need for systematic system reform throughout the Office of Education so that all minority students, including Jewish students, can learn safely.”
Currently, the Federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is in the process of determining the basic facts based on the received complaint. MCPS explained that it attempted to take safety measures and administrative intervention, but did not immediately respond to the media's request to reveal its specific position.