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Trump

Anna Moneymaker

The leaders of three large school districts forcefully defended themselves Wednesday under intense and sometimes hostile questioning on Capitol Hill from House Republicans, who repeatedly accused them of doing too little to confront antisemitism in their schools.

Many of the spiciest parries were with David Banks, the chancellor of the New York City public schools, who eagerly agreed that there has been antisemitism in his district and said he has worked to punish those responsible and prevent future offenses. Banks accused Congress of seeking a “gotcha moment” rather than trying to solve the problem.

“It’s about teaching. You have to raise the consciousness of young people,” Banks said. “And the challenge we have as a system is we do have some adults who do bring their own bias into the classroom.”

Antisemitism on college campuses has received enormous national attention, and the House Education Committee has held two fiery hearings with aggressive questioning of university leaders that contributed to the resignations of the presidents of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/01/02/claudine-gay-resigns-harvard/" target=_blank>Harvard</a> and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/09/penn-president-magill-antisemitism-harvard-mit/" target=_blank>University of Pennsylvania</a>. But a number of antisemitic incidents also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/02/04/oakland-teachers-jewish-families-israel-gaza-war/" target=_blank>have been reported in K-12 schools</a> across the country since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target=_blank>the war in Gaza</a> that has followed.

Wednesday’s hearing also featured leaders from two other liberal areas of the country: Berkeley, Calif., and Montgomery County, Md., outside Washington. All three districts are also under scrutiny by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/09/education-department-antisemitism-islamophobia-investigation/" target=_blank>opened investigations</a> of national origin discrimination related to religion, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, at more than 145 K-12 and higher education institutions in recent months.

The session began with Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), chairman of the K-12 subcommittee of the House Education Committee, accusing the school leaders of failing in their duty to protect students in their care facing a crush of antisemitic incidents.

“This is happening without an appropriate or any response at all,” Bean said. “Jewish students in their districts fear riding the bus, wearing their kippa to school, or just eating or breathing as a Jewish student.” He cited reports of students chanting, “Kill the Jews,” of students deploying the Nazi salute, and an incident of Jewish students being told to pick pennies up off the floor.

He repeatedly questioned why the school leaders haven’t fired teachers and administrators implicated in various incidents, and appeared unsatisfied when they declined to say or replied that they had followed district procedures.

Banks was pressed about a November incident at Hillcrest High School in Queens, in which hundreds of students filled the hallways after a Jewish teacher posted a photo of herself holding an “I Stand With Israel” sign. The teacher hid in an office, fearful. Banks replied that students were disciplined and the principal was removed.

“I don’t know how to make it much clearer,” Banks said. “What happened at Hillcrest was a complete act of antisemitism.”

He came under repeated questioning about how he dealt with the principal. The chancellor was careful to say the principal had been “removed,” prompting Republicans to press as to why he was not fired. Later, Banks acknowledged that the principal was now working in the district’s central office under a deputy chancellor.

“How can Jewish students feel safe at New York City public schools when you can’t even manage to terminate the principal of ‘Open Season on Jews High School?’” asked Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.). “How can Jewish students go to school knowing that he is still on your payroll — your payroll, sir!”

Banks replied, “Every employee who works in our schools has due process rights, sir.”

“Ha!” Williams replied, repeating skeptically, “due process.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) piled on, questioning why the principal remains in a “senior position” and accusing Banks of having told the committee wrongly that he had fired the principal.

“I never said I fired the principal,” he said.

“You did,” she said, urging him to check the record.

“You check the record!” he shot back.

Stefanik also asked about a number of alleged antisemitic statements from students at Origins High School in Brooklyn. Banks said he was very concerned about the incident but could not give detailed responses because the matter is the subject of litigation.

The hearing followed similar grillings by the committee of leaders of prominent universities. In the first, in December, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/05/colleges-antisemitism-house-hearing-israel/" target="_blank">presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT</a> came under enormous fire when they declined to say whether a call for the genocide of Jews would amount to a violation of their school policies. In a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/17/columbia-congress-hearing-antisemitism-campus-protests-israel-gaza/" target="_blank">similar hearing in April</a>, Columbia’s president took a strong stand against antisemitism. A third hearing with college officials is planned for later this month.

The debate — both in universities and K-12 schools — is a difficult one for many school leaders, who have worked to support students’ right to protest Israel’s actions in the war while also protecting Jewish students. Like their college counterparts, high school students have staged pro-Palestinian walkouts from schools, and some teachers have backed them up.

Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said administrators have to consider “the totality of the circumstances” to discern whether an incident is protected speech or a violation of someone else’s civil rights.

“There are words that we might agree here … are offensive,” Sykes said. “But we can also understand that certain words depend on how they’re used, when they’re used, to whom they’re used, how often they’re used. And all of those are relevant to determining whether speech is protected or creating a hostile educational environment.”

At the hearing’s start, all three leaders said that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. Asked by Bean whether the popular pro-Palestinian chant “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/14/river-sea-free-palestine-meaning/" target=_blank>From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free</a>” is antisemitic, Banks said that Jewish students experience it that way, so therefore it is. The leaders of the Montgomery County and Berkeley systems said it was if the intent is the destruction of the Jewish people.

“It is,” Bean snapped back. (Others interpret the chant to be a call for peace or a Palestinian state alongside Israel.)

Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District, defended her district’s approach amid attacks from Republicans who said she was not doing enough. Unlike Banks, who repeatedly acknowledged problems and said he was addressing them, she suggested the accusations were somewhat overblown.

“Antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley Unified School District,” she said. But she said school officials do respond when it occurs. “We do not publicly share our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law. As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”

Karla Silvestre, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education, said the school system doesn’t “shy away from imposing consequences for hate-based behavior, including antisemitism.” This school year, the district — Maryland’s largest — has received about three reports each day of hate-bias targeting race, religion, gender and sexuality, according to data reviewed by the school board in March. A majority of those alleged incidents targeted race and about 30 percent concerned religion.

Students have reported swastikas drawn in classrooms, and teachers who have made antisemitic comments in the classroom, according to a summary of hate-bias reports kept by the county police department. At least four teachers were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/02/16/cair-first-amendment-lawsuit-mcps/" target=_blank>placed on administrative leave</a> while under investigation for alleged antisemitic speech online. In one case, a teacher wrote in their email signature, “From the river to the sea, Palestine to be free,” which she characterized as a call for Palestinian national aspirations.

Silvestre said the school system has added more training  training for all of its staff and revised its curriculum to include more topics about Jewish history. “I want to do everything in my power to make sure all students can pursue their education without worrying about antisemitic racist or hateful threats,” Silvestre said.

Bean pointedly asked Silvestre whether any teacher in the Montgomery district had been fired; she said no, but that there had been disciplinary action.

Democrats on the House committee joined Republicans in condemning antisemitism, though their questioning of the school leaders was gentler. Some also charged the GOP with hypocrisy, noting that Republican budgets would have cut funding for the Office for Civil Rights, which investigates antisemitism and other allegations of discrimination.

Some also accused Republicans of being less concerned about antisemitism from the far right, such as during the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally.

“Many of my colleagues claim to care about the rise of antisemitism in this country, but when white supremacists marched in Charlottesville … with burning torches and chanting, ‘Jews will not replace us,’ the president at the time, Donald Trump, said, ‘There were very fine people on both sides,’” said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.). She also pointed to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/25/trump-fuentes-ye/" target=_blank>Trump having dined </a>with a far-right activist who has promoted antisemitism.

“If my colleagues care about antisemitism, they would condemn and denounce these comments from the leader of their party,” Bonamici said. “Does anyone have the courage to stand up against this?” She paused. “Let the record show no one spoke up at this time.”

Nieman Fellowship, Harvard University, 2003-2004

Livingston Award for National Reporting, 1999

First place, Shutdown “Feddie,” for coverage of the government shutdown, National Press Foundation (team award), 2014

First place, series, North American Agricultural Journalists (team award), 2008

Third place, beat reporting, Association of Health Care Journalists, 2007

George Polk Award for Justice Reporting for “George Floyd’s America," 2021 (team award)

Education Writers Association, finalist, beat reporting; finalist, feature writing, 2021

Educations Writers Association, finalist, beat reporting, 2020

DREAM TOWN: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity

Washington University in St. Louis, A.B. in political science and international development

Laura Meckler covers the news, politics and people shaping American schools. She previously reported on the White House, presidential politics and immigration for the Wall Street Journal, as well as on health and social policy for the Associated Press. She is author of DREAM TOWN: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity, about her hometown.

Laura Meckler

University of Kansas, BS in journalism

Nicole Asbury is a local reporter for The Washington Post covering education and K-12 schools in Maryland.