The Philadelphia school district failed to show it protected Jewish students from harassment despite “repeated, extensive notice” that students, teachers and administrators were engaging in antisemitic behavior, the U.S. Department of Education has concluded after a federal civil rights investigation.
Philadelphia school administrators did not adequately address allegations that students were performing Nazi salutes, drawing swastikas on school property and uttering slurs and threats against Jewish students — in some cases neglecting to even document the incidents, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights found. Federal investigators also cited complaints about allegedly antisemitic social media posts by a school board member, an assistant superintendent and four teachers.
The Philadelphia district, among the largest public school systems in the U.S., did not evaluate whether a hostile environment existed in its schools, and did not demonstrate that it took steps to “eliminate any such hostile environment and prevent its recurrence,” the civil rights office said in a Dec. 18 letter to the district’s lawyers.