By: Howard Riell
A federal lawsuit alleging anti-Semitic harassment at a New Jersey high school has got educators and the general public talking.
The Marine Academy of Science and Technology in Middletown, New Jersey is on the hot seat, reportedly for not protecting a female student from endemic anti-Semitism.
While the plaintiff’s name has not been made public, the lawsuit in US federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, targets the Monmouth County Vocational School District, as well as the school board itself and four teachers. The allegation is that the student had to endure anti-Semitic treatment during three years in the school.
The alleged examples given are disturbing. Nearly five years ago a fellow student made fun of her last name, pronouncing it ‘Jew Fray.’ A teacher who overheard the comment allegedly laughed, according to the suit.
In her second year in school, the Jewish student observed her fellow students reading Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, even though the book was not on the school’s reading list.
The suit also alleges that several times at lunch, the complainant saw other students “drawing images of swastikas in the notebooks and on school lunch tables.” Once again, according to the suit, school officials took no action whatsoever.
The allegations continued into April 2019, when the situation got worse. During a field trip to Sandy Hook Beach, one of the students texted 17 others, including the plaintiff, a photograph of a student lying on the sand with the words “I hate Jews” scrawled in the next to them. Another student reportedly suggested the photo be used on the cover of the school’s annual yearbook.
When the plaintiff parents called the school to complain, their daughter was labeled a “snitch” by other students. Eventually, the students behind the racist photograph were suspended for four days. A two-day suspension was handed to the student who recommended the photo be used on the cover of the yearbook.
At that point, the student claims, several students began what the lawsuit says was a “large-scale and explicitly coordinated campaign of retribution.” The plaintiff found a rock near her desk with the name “Adolf” painted on it.
A complaint was eventually filed with the State Attorney General’s division of civil rights. The student eventually left the school with a perfect 4.0 grade point average at the conclusion of her junior year.
According to the New York Post, the two male students behind the hateful photograph both won academic awards and had applications accepted by Cornell and NYU. However, when the lawsuit got some publicity an investigation ensued, does two students College admissions were rescinded.
The student told the Post, “I’m forever saddened that this happened to me, but I have grown to accept that my family and I did the right thing by reporting it. I am trying to move forward but this will always be something I carry.”
Noted her attorney Eric Hecker in the suit, “She did not go to her senior prom. She did not walk in a graduation ceremony. Her adjustment to college has been very challenging. Her sense of self-worth has been severely compromised.”
