The decision comes after the school system — Maryland’s largest with over 160,000 students — saw several antisemitic incidents in recent years, ranging from students drawing swastikas on classroom desks and in bathrooms to a person spray painting “Jews Not Welcome” across Walt Whitman High School’s entrance sign...
Hate vandalism at two Montgomery County high schools and two elementary schools greeted staff on the first day back to school for teachers Monday.
“A number of our schools were illegally vandalized with politically charged graffiti, antisemitic iconography (including swastikas), and, in some instances, anti-LGBTQ+ language,” said a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) spokesperson.
The vandalism occurred at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Thomas Wootton High Schol in Rockville and Strathmore Elementary School in Silver Spring and Fallsmead Elementary School in Rockville.
This follows recent antisemitic graffiti that was spray painted at Bethesda Elementary School where the Bethesda Farmers Market was being held.
Principals are asking staff to report these incidents and also to provide “the supportive resources necessary to address the harm and anxiety these actions may have caused,” the spokesperson said...
Members of the Montgomery County’s Anti-Hate Task Force Tuesday evening heard from its Jewish cohort, the first of six groups to present their findings and recommendations.
“The daily news is a reminder of why we do this work,” said Council President Evan Glass, the leading force behind the task force.
Most recently, antisemitic graffiti that included the words “Club Aryan Excellent” and a swastika were painted below the Josiah Henson Parkway by Tildenwood Drive in North Bethesda and within the first two days of school, an anti-Semitic incident was reported at Montgomery County Public Schools.
The task force’s next meeting is Sept. 19. The Muslim cohort will make its report and recommendations then...
