Public School Leaders Spar With Congress Over Campus Antisemitism

Members of Congress pressed public-school leaders Wednesday on how they have disciplined teachers and students engaged in antisemitic behavior since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The two-hour hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce delivered a number of tense moments, though everyone in the room broadly seemed to agree that education about Jewish history from a young age and strong consequences to antisemitic behavior are what’s needed to combat antisemitism in youth.

“We cannot simply discipline our way out of this problem,” David Banks, the chancellor of New York City Public Schools, told the committee. “The true antidote to ignorance and bias is to teach.”

The hearing was the third held by the committee with school leaders to discuss antisemitism. Last fall, the committee grilled the presidents at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania over their responses to protests and allegations of antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. The fallout from those hearings ultimately led to the resignations of the Harvard and Penn presidents.

Last month, the committee took aim at the president of Columbia University over similar topics. That hearing prompted protests, which ultimately led to dozens of arrests at the New York campus.

Antisemitism in high schools

The committee called Wednesday’s hearing following allegations of antisemitic acts in a number of public high schools.

On Wednesday, Republican legislators sparred with Banks over how he handled a raucous student protest in November at Hillcrest High School in Queens, which targeted a teacher that had shown support for Israel. Banks said the district suspended several students, removed the principal and called in a Jewish organization to help educate the student body.

“I don’t know how to make it much clearer,” Banks said, as Rep. Burgess Owens (R., Utah) pressed him on whether there had been consequences and whether the actions would have differed if it was bigoted white students targeting a Black teacher. New York schools have looked into 281 incidents since Oct. 7, Banks said, 42% of them being antisemitic and 30% anti-Muslim views.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) called it lip service to remove the principal but keep him employed by the district office. Banks said repeatedly in the hearing the district must follow a due process system and union rules around discipline.

Karla Silvestre, the board president of Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, also said disciplinary actions had been taken against teachers, but that none had been fired. Asked by Rep. Aaron Bean (R., Fla.) if people need to be fired for teaching hatred, Silvestre replied, “Absolutely,” and that disciplined teachers were told there would be deeper consequences for further offenses.

A diversity of ideas

Committee members said they had heard about antisemitic incidents ranging from students chanting “Kill the Jews” and doing Nazi salutes in the halls to swastikas being drawn on campuses. Classroom teaching was also probed, including a slide in a Berkeley, Calif., lesson which instructed that the phrase “From the river to the sea” is viewed as a call for freedom and peace by some Palestinians. Many Jewish people and others find the saying antisemitic.

“Do you think that’s an appropriate thing to have on a slide for students?” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R., Calif.) asked Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel.

Ford Morthel replied that the district values exposing students to a diversity of ideas, so “If it was presented as a perspective, I do think it’s appropriate.” Earlier in the hearing, she agreed the phrase was antisemitic if it was used to call for the elimination of the Jewish people.

Ford Morthel wouldn’t say whether any teachers in Berkeley had been fired, repeatedly saying she couldn’t speak about personnel matters but that issues brought to their attention had been investigated and dealt with.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened investigations into alleged antisemitism in each of the three districts called to testify Wednesday, as well as a few dozen other school districts.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D., Ore.) used her turn at the mic to stress the need to better fund the Office for Civil Rights, which she said has half the staff as when it was established 45 years ago but now handles more discrimination complaints. “Every student deserves to be safe and feel safe at schools,” she said at the hearing’s outset.

Incidents in New York City Public Schools, the nation’s largest school system, received the most attention. Banks fielded questions about a hostile climate in Origins High School in Brooklyn, now the subject of a lawsuit brought by two school employees alleging rampant antisemitism.

“This is the one case that’s troubled me the most,” Banks said, noting they found wide-ranging and deeply troubling antisemitic speech and have suspended a number of students.

The school leaders each said they have been working with outside organizations to revise curriculum around Jewish history. Silvestre said Montgomery County schools will have mandatory anti-hate training for all staff.

In a heated exchange with Rep. Brandon Williams (R., N.Y.), Banks justified not firing the Hillcrest principal and said that he works every day to allay the concerns of Jewish families.

“I doubt very much that they’re comforted that this nightmare is over under your leadership,” Williams said.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” replied Banks.

Write to Sara Randazzo at [email protected]