Berkeley Unified School District in California is at the center of a federal antisemitic bullying complaint fueled by teachers and students engaging in “severe and persistent” harassment of Jewish children, according to a federal civil rights filing.
The complaint filed Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights details four months of anti-Jewish harassment, including walkouts at which students allegedly yelled, “F*** the Jews,” and teachers using class time to bring attention to Hamas terrorists as “resistance” fighters.
“Following their teachers’ lead, students bully their Jewish peers and deride their physical appearance,” according to the filing from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. “Non-Jewish students are led by their teachers’ example to believe that they can freely denigrate their Jewish and Israeli classmates, telling them, e.g., that ‘it is excellent what Hamas did to Israel’ and ‘you have a big nose because you are a stupid Jew.'”
The Louis D. Brandeis Center brought the complaint on behalf of concerned parents and students at the Berkeley schools in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League.
The complaint noted that antisemitism has been a problem in the school district for some time but that it increased considerably after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Parents have reported antisemitic acts numerous times, and the school has done little to respond, according to the complaint.
“At most, misguided administrators have attempted to ‘resolve’ problems involving teachers by moving Jewish and Israeli students into new classes,” the complaint reads. “As a result, anti-Semitism is normalized throughout BUSD.”
According to the complaint, teachers in district middle and high schools organized walkouts during class hours to support Gaza while leaving students who did not participate without instruction.
On Oct. 18, students at Berkeley High School staged a “walkout for Palestine,” allegedly promoted by the teachers, in which they chanted, “Stop bombing Gaza,” and, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School did the same thing that day: Teachers allegedly handed out fliers and guided students to assemble in the amphitheater. During the walkout, students chanted offensive slogans such as “Kill the Jews,” “F*** the Jews,” “F*** Israel,” “KKK,” “Kill Israel,” and “I hate those people,” according to the complaint.
Students at both middle and high schools who participated in the walkouts had their absences marked excused by teachers.
Teachers were also more overt in their messaging to students, according to the complaint, with one Berkeley High School art teacher allegedly showing students pro-Hamas videos and displaying images such as a fist holding a Palestinian flag punching through a Star of David, and another poster stating “WE GONNA FIGHT AGAINST APARTHEID.”
After Jewish students and parents complained, the school allegedly responded by saying the images would be removed, which did not happen, according to the filing, and ultimately by removing the Jewish students from the classroom.
A second-grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary School allegedly instructed students to write “messages of anti-hate,” such as “Stop bombing babies,” which were posted outside the classroom of the school’s only Jewish teacher.
“Berkeley Unified stands against all forms of hate,” BUSD superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “This is a message we share widely and frequently in our school community. We believe that classrooms must be places of joy, empathy, curiosity, love and rigor where all students feel safe, seen, heard, and valued. We work to make these spaces responsive and humanizing for our diverse students.
“The district continuously encourages students and families to report any incidents of bullying or hate-motivated behavior and vigorously investigates each and every report,” she continued, explaining that the district has not yet received the complaint but assuring that it will work with the Education Department.
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According to the Los Angeles Times, some parent groups in the district disagree with the complaint, saying it is falsified and defamatory.
“The complaint is replete with false information,” BUSD Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation said, according to the outlet. “By mischaracterizing messages that support Palestinian human rights as somehow dangerous to Jewish students, the complaint is full of anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab messages.”
