Jewish, Israeli students being harassed, bullied in Fulton schools, civil rights complaint claims

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — In the months since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by terrorist organization Hamas, three advocacy groups say Jewish and Israeli students have faced “routine anti-Semitic bullying and harassment” in Fulton County Schools classrooms, hallways, schoolyards and buses across the school district.

Now, the three organizations have filed a Title VI complaint with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights against the school district, alleging that Fulton County Schools has “fostered a hostile climate that has allowed anti-Semitism to thrive in its schools.”

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“The numerous incidents of anti-Semitic bullying and harassment against Jewish and Israeli students by their peers and teachers in the Fulton County School District – some even targeting the most vulnerable students in elementary and middle schools – are a disturbing reminder that anti-Semitism is a problem that impacts students long before they step foot on a college campus,” Denise Katz-Prober, Director of Legal Initiatives for the Brandeis Center, said.

While the organizations, The Louis D. Brandeis Center For Human Rights Under Law, Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education (JAFE) and the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC), say the district has ignored requests from parents to address these issues. The district says the claims are false.

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The school district released a statement to Channel 2 Action News on Wednesday morning saying they are aware of the complaint, but will not comment on the “validity, or lack thereof, of the allegations.”

“This private group’s effort to depict Fulton County Schools as promoting or even tolerating anti-Semitism is false,” the statement read.

“The families of these Jewish and Israeli students have been left to fend for themselves, by administrators who dismiss their complaints and refuse to act. It is long past due for FCSD to take swift corrective action against the anti-Semitism that pervades their schools,” Katz-Prober said.

In an additional part of their response, the school district said they’d worked to encourage understanding and a focus on academics.

The district said they recognize “the strong feelings that were generated by the tragedy of Oct. 7 and the continuing war in the Middle East,” and that school leaders have remained in communication with parents and students about maintaining a focus on learning and remaining respectful of one another.

The groups who filed the Title VI complaint said that since the day after the attacks in October, Jewish and Israeli students have been subjected to anti-Israel slogans and curses from other students, people burning “I stand with Israel” posters and that even teachers and other district staff had participated in the harassing behavior.

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