Leaders of some of America's largest public school districts are facing questions from a House panel Wednesday about incidents of anti-Semitism in their schools.
A Republican-led House subcommittee on education has called for testimony from Berkeley Unified Schools Superintendent Ford Morthel of California, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks and board President Montgomery County High School student Karla Silvestre of Maryland.
“Anti-Semitic incidents have erupted in K-12 schools after the horrific Hamas Attack of October 7. Jewish teachers, students and professors have been denied a safe learning environment and forced to contend with anti-Semitic agitators because of the inaction of district leaders,” Rep. Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education, he told CBS News.
A senior committee aide told CBS News that the panel did not issue subpoenas, but did ask school district leaders to voluntarily appear.
In a written statement shared with CBS News, the Berkeley United School District said Morthel “did not wish” to testify, but has accepted the invitation to appear.
A Berkeley Schools spokeswoman said: “We strive every day to ensure that our classrooms are respectful, humanizing and joyful places for all our students, where they are welcomed, seen, valued and heard. We will continue to focus on our students and taking care of each other during this time.”
Each of the three school districts has a large number of Jewish students. All have faced complaints about their handling of alleged incidents of anti-Semitism.
The Anti-Defamation League and the Louis Brandeis Center, The Free Beacon noted, have filed a complaint against the Berkeley school system, alleging that some children have suffered “serious and persistent harassment and discrimination because of their Jewish ethnicity, shared ancestry and national origin and whose reports to administrators have been ignored for months.”
The Zionist Organization of America recently filed a civil rights complaint against Montgomery County Public Schools, alleging that anti-Semitic incidents at its schools have not been adequately addressed. The school district did not respond to a request for comment about Silvestre or the board president's planned testimony.
Montgomery County Public School District's publicly released policies on religious diversity state: “Each student has the right to his or her religious beliefs and practices, free from discrimination, bullying or harassment.”
New York City is also facing a civil rights complaint from the Brandeis Center that alleges “persistent anti-Semitism against faculty has not been addressed.” When asked for comment on his chancellor's planned testimony, a New York Public Schools spokesman referred CBS News to comments made by Banks at a public event earlier this month.
“Exclusion and bullying go against everything public education stands for,” Banks said. “We cannot allow acts of hatred, whether physical or through anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
“Doing so causes more pain and puts up even more walls,” Banks added. “We must collectively oppose it.”
Scott MacFarlane
