When I was a freshman at San Lorenzo Valley High School near Santa Cruz, other students drew a Nazi flag on a piece of paper and pinned it to my back. Kids laughed and took pictures of me with the Nazi flag on my back, but nobody told me it was there.
At that moment, I felt sad, confused and overwhelmed. But what felt worse was when school officials didn’t take the rising antisemitism at my school seriously. Instead, I was the one who had to leave the school because I felt unsafe. As a result of this incident last year, and more importantly, the lack of response from teachers and administrators, I did not feel able to return to school and spent the end of my freshman year at home, taking my finals over the summer.
In a recent op-ed in J., Laura Einhorn speaks out against lawsuits by Jewish parents and families against California school districts that have not taken action against rising antisemitism. She makes the case that the problem is too many lawsuits draining the resources of local school districts and diverting attention away from other educational priorities.
I wish I could agree with her. I wish I could rely on school administrators and teachers to properly prevent and address hate against Jewish students in our schools in a way that would make these lawsuits unnecessary.
Einhorn says to call off the lawyers. I’d ask her: What should students do when they’ve already tried everything else?
Jewish students today are facing a barrage of antisemitic hate at school. Some of these incidents are resolved with immediate action taken by caring teachers and school administrators. But too often, Jewish students are told that their feelings are not valid, that the hate they receive doesn’t warrant intervention or that the issue is simply not a big deal. By contrast, I have seen school leaders react resolutely when a Black, gay or Asian student is harassed based on their minority identity.
This leaves lawsuits and legal actions as an essential avenue to get school leaders to take the matter seriously, be held accountable and implement needed changes. Contrary to Einhorn’s assessment, I, along with countless other Jewish students, am not looking for special treatment. All we want is to go to school and learn without fear of hate or harassment and without needing to hide our Jewish identity. And we want our teachers and school leaders to take quick action when we report antisemitic incidents.
We are fortunate that California has strong laws and California Department of Education policies to protect students against discrimination of all types, including antisemitism. But those laws are useless if they are ignored by school administrators. Too often, only the threat of legal action or an actual lawsuit will result in schools taking complaints seriously and enforcing state laws and CDE policies.
Every student — regardless of religion, national origin or ethnicity — deserves an environment free from discrimination. The same laws that protect Muslim students, Black students, LGBTQ+ students and every other student should be enforced to protect Jewish students as well.
Unfortunately, Jewish students instead face teachers and administrators who don’t recognize antisemitism for what it is or who care more about protecting the reputations of their schools or teachers than creating an environment where all students, including Jewish students, can be fully and openly themselves without encountering discrimination.
No student should be subjected to hate. And no student should be told that the hate they receive doesn’t merit attention. I don’t want another Jewish kid at my school — or any school — to spend their summer taking finals alone because they didn’t feel safe enough to go back. That’s what’s at stake.