The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced in late December that it has entered an agreement with the School District of Philadelphia to ensure the district’s compliance with certain requirements of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the district is alleged to have violated, specifically as they relate to creating a safe environment for Jewish students.
A news release from the Office for Civil Rights from late December says that the district received “repeated, extensive notice during the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years of harassment based on shared ancestry that could create a hostile environment for students,” in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin, including on the basis of shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics.
According to the OCR, the majority of those notices were due to incidents of antisemitism that include but are not limited to Nazi salutes and other antisemitic slurs, swastikas being drawn, threats to “kill the Jews,” students “dress[ing] up like Nazis with a swastika tied around each of their arms, spewing fake German and hailing Hitler through the hallways” and allegations of staff misconduct on social media.
In a news release from the Anti-Defamation League issued this summer at the time that the complaint was filed, the organization alleges mass mismanagement resulting in a strenuous environment for young Jews.
“Jewish parents have regularly reported a host of troubling incidents affecting their children to the SDP administration, but the district has done virtually nothing to address the hostile environment. In fact, the complaint notes, students and parents who have reported antisemitic incidents have themselves faced blatant retaliation,” it said in the release.
The terms of the settlement are extensive. They include requirements that the school district issue an anti-harassment statement; review its policies and procedures and submit revisions to the OCR for approval; create or change its current process for documenting complaints; train all staff on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act annually; train the investigative staff on new procedures for reviewing, investigating and documenting complaints of discrimination; create an education program for all middle and high school students that addresses discrimination based on race, color and national origin, including harassment based on shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics; review its previous responses to complaints made over the past two school years; conduct an audit of every middle and high school to keep track of and ensure compliance, among other methods of feedback, and retain or designate a consultant with expertise in the area to assist in some of these various requirements.
In the release, the OCR said that “notwithstanding this extensive notice, the district has not demonstrated … that [it] fulfilled its Title VI obligations,” except for in a single case in which the school district sought outside counsel.
For example, the OCR cited a case in which a teacher in a position of authority spoke at a schoolwide assembly and asked in respect to another issue whether “[it was] really the quote unquote antisemitism that made you uncomfortable or was it the truth?”
After this incident, the district was asked to evaluate its status as a welcoming environment for all students — an evaluation that the district produced no information on when asked by the OCR to do so.
In the ADL press release, the organization lists some more examples that were pulled from complaints filed with the district that paint a better picture of what Jewish students in the district have faced in the past two years or so.
An eighth grade student was forced to drop out after the district’s inadequate response to bullying that included attacks like the use of the Nazi salute and the phrase “praise Hitler.”
A fourth-grade student at another school was bullied in the hallway and asked on a computer quiz, “Who do we hate?” with the two right answers being “Israel and Pork.”
Swastikas were drawn or depicted in some capacity at a number of schools, including Masterman School, Southwark School, Swenson Arts and Technology High School and George Washington High School.
During a Halloween celebration held in the weeks following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, a student came to one SDP school dressed as a “Palestinian freedom fighter,” according to the ADL, and attempted to drape a Palestinian flag over a Jewish student.
“Philadelphia schools have a long history of providing a safe and welcoming environment for students of all identities. However, in the recent past — and especially in the aftermath of October 7th — we’ve seen a stark rise in incidents and attitudes that alienate Jewish students, faculty and families,” said Andrew Goretsky, ADL Philadelphia regional director.
“Jewish students face a shameful and pervasive litany of antisemitic harassment from their peers, and teachers and administrators, the professionals tasked with our children’s education. This pattern is dangerous, completely unacceptable and needs to stop now.”
Goretsky added that this is not a solution, but an initial step.
“This is a first step and a necessary step to begin to address the clear evidence of harassment and discrimination of Jewish students in the school district,” he said. “And so these measures, I am cautiously optimistic, will address that first step of making sure that when there is misinformation and disinformation and that when there is false information, when a student is being harassed, that they will be able to intervene appropriately and start changing their attitudes.”
A spokesperson for the district did not respond to a request for comment that was sent over Christmas break.
