Davidson charter school settles complaint about years of antisemitism endured by student
The Community School of Davidson has settled a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education after a student said he endured persistent antisemitic bullying for two years.
The investigation by the Office for Civil Rights probed whether the K-12 charter school allowed the bullying to continue despite knowing about it. The settlement requires the school to address allegations in a complaint filed last year, which alleges “severe and persistent anti-Semitic harassment.”
Denise Katz-Prober, attorney for the student, said the school did not consistently and promptly take steps to address the alleged antisemitic bullying or the broader environment. Katz-Prober works for the Louis D. Brandeis Center, a nonprofit that filed the complaint.
The boy, now in eighth grade, wore the Israeli Olympic jersey of his favorite baseball player to school one day, and a group of nine students harassed and bullied him with antisemitic language over the next two years, according to the federal complaint filed on Aug. 11. The student is not Jewish.
Students called the boy numerous antisemitic names every day and mocked him with references to the Holocaust, according to the boy’s mother. She asked that her name and her son’s name be withheld.
“I could give you pages and pages of the things that were said,” she told The Observer. “Just the more vile and horrible things you could imagine, and that was every day, in classrooms, in hallways, everywhere.”
Of the nine students, two were given in-school suspension, five had meetings with parents and administration and two were not disciplined at all, the boy’s mother said.
“With regard to the complaint filed with OCR by a parent, first and foremost, CSD prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying of students and staff members,” Community School of Davidson Board Chair Jim Beam said in an email to The Observer after the initial version of this article was published. “CSD voluntarily entered into a resolution agreement with OCR after a complaint was filed alleging a student was harassed based on perceived Jewish ancestry.”
Beam said the school abides by all state and federal anti-discrimination laws and will continue to do so.
“It would be hard to overstate the impact this has had on my child,” the boy’s mother said during a recent congressional briefing on Capitol Hill about rising antisemitism in K-12 schools. “As a parent this has been completely devastating.”
While she said she’s pleased with the settlement, she’s shocked it took this kind of intervention for the school to change its policies.
What U.S. Department of Education found
The U.S. Department of Education in the settlement addressed the Brandeis Center’s claim that students’ behavior at the school violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race or ethnicity.
“This case shows the various ways in which non-Jews as well as Jews can be harmed by antisemitic attitudes,” said Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. “The law recognizes that discrimination against those ‘perceived’ to be Jewish must be addressed because it is still bigotry, and it can quickly and dangerously multiply and seep into an entire community.”
The agreement requires the school to take the following immediate steps:
Publish and publicize a statement that it does not tolerate “acts of harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.“
Review and revise its non-discrimination policies.
Develop or revise procedures for harassment complaints and actions taken in response by the school.
Ensure parents and students have access to a counselor to discuss incidents.
Annual training for school staff and administrators on anti-discrimination law under Title VI and what antisemitism looks like
Develop a student informational program to address discrimination including on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics.
Conduct audits for the last two school years to determine if any similar incidents occurred and take steps to remedy the effects those incidents may have had on students.
Conduct an audit at the end of the 2024-25 school year to assess compliance with the school’s anti-discrimination policies and procedures.
The Department of Education says it will monitor the Community School of Davidson until it determines it is in compliance with the terms of the settlement and the law.
“I think this case is a reminder that the problem of antisemitism, whether it’s in K-12 schools or on college campuses, should not be shoved under the rug,” said Katz-Prober. “It needs to be addressed head-on by educators, administrators and the Department of Education.”
