Following the Hamas terror attacks in Israel three weeks ago, there has been a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in K-12 schools and on college and university campuses across New Jersey, as first reported last week.
Ocean, Middlesex, Hudson and Passaic counties have accounted for most of the suspicious activity reported statewide, according to New Jersey Counter Terrorism Watch Unit leader Dan Geddes.
In response, Attorney General Matt Platkin and Sundeep Iyer, Director of the Division on Civil Rights, have issued the joint statement below, though they did not adress any specific incidents.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s military response in Gaza and the West Bank, there has been a marked increase in bias targeting Jewish and Muslim community members in K-12 schools and on college and university campuses across our state. The rise in bias in our schools threatens the safe educational environment to which all our students are entitled.
Now more than ever, it is critical that our educational institutions respond immediately—and in a manner consistent with their legal obligations—when bias incidents occur. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) protects all students, including our Jewish, Israeli, Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students, from discrimination or harassment based on actual or perceived race, national origin, religion, or other protected characteristics.
It also requires K-12 schools, colleges, and universities to proactively address and respond to harassment, including peer-on-peer harassment. Where peer-to-peer, bias-based harassment is sufficiently severe or pervasive that it creates an intimidating or hostile school environment, the school must take immediate action to address the harassment.
Ultimately, if a school knew or should have known of the harassment but did not take action reasonably calculated to end the harassment and prevent it from reoccurring, the school may violate the LAD. Other laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, also require schools to respond promptly to bias-based harassment and other bias incidents at school.
To be clear, nothing in our laws prohibit schools and educators from continuing to facilitate age-appropriate dialogue and conversations that are rooted in accurate information and that avoid stereotypes, hateful slogans, or tropes that may fuel antisemitism, Islamophobia, or other forms of bias. But make no mistake: where bias-based harassment, bullying, or other bias incidents occur in school, it is incumbent on our schools to promptly address the harassment and make clear in unequivocal terms to members of the school community that they denounce bias-based conduct.
To assist educational institutions in identifying best practices for preventing bias and responding when bias occurs, the Department of Education and Division on Civil Rights have issued guidance for K-12 schools, and the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education and Division on Civil Rights have issued guidance for colleges and universities. We strongly encourage all educational institutions to review the guidance carefully.
We strongly encourage students, staff, community members and others to report evidence of discrimination or bias-based harassment to DCR immediately. To find out more or to file a complaint, please go to NJCivilRights.gov or call 1.833.NJDCR4U. DCR enforces the LAD, which protects all people from discrimination in New Jersey. No one can retaliate against you for reporting LAD violations, filing a discrimination complaint, or exercising other rights under the LAD.
Blah blah blah…yawn.
I teach in a NJ public school. When it’s antisemitic their “investigation” leads to findings of “no evidence of racial bias” but when it’s the other way around the administration trips all over themselves to take action. Black Muslim students are known to be violent and the schools are scared to set them off.
Starting at the elementary level, our NJ public schools are cesspool of hate and antisemitism. This is rooted in the classrooms (Social Studies and Language Arts particularly) where liberal teachers lead the students to thinking a certain way without outright using the words “from the river to the sea” so they can’t be blamed. It’s all a farce. The DOE knows it and they know they’re powerless to stop it, thanks to the teachers’ union that ENCOURAGES this rhetoric in the classrooms. They actually guide the teachers on how to “educate” the students about racial equality, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. which clearly takes one side. Sadly, even the most civil teachers don’t speak up because they either don’t care or because they’re scared of the big mouths of their liberal colleagues.
Lakewood Mommy, thanks for letting us know what’s going on. This is very scary. Public school students will grow up to be violent adult versions of the violent students they already are, filled to the brim with propaganda and hate.
this has nothing to do with Islam and does not involve Black Muslims at all and if they do get involved it is a huge mistake because they are just getting soaked up and cooked into a territorial dispute which actually is against the United Nations resolutions and does not in any way at all involve African Americans.
I would love to see some real statistics of hate events against muslims compared with those against jews. Something tells me that that its a ratio of about 1 anti Muslim to 100 anti Jewish. But this smacks more of the politically correct quest of “symmetry” and an attempt at victimizing the aggressors rather than siding with the victims. And its quite typical among the ignorant masses to side with the more vocal side, in this case the Palestinians. Most those pro-palestinians wouldn’t even know where Gaza is on the map, and even less the history of the region!
Reb Shlomolah ZT”L said it right over 45 years ago.
We have just one friend in heaven
Yisroel B’tach B’Hashem