Crapo, Risch, Colleagues Urge Biden Administration to Address Rising Rates of Antisemitism in K-12 Schools

Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Department of Education (ED) has a responsibility to ensure schools that receive federal funds maintain a safe learning environment for students. While the administration has since announced new efforts to address antisemitism in schools, these actions do nothing to ensure schools are responsibly handling these events and working to prevent them in the first place. The senators urged the administration to use their enforcement power under Title VI to ensure K-12 schools are protecting Jewish students from harassment and maintaining a safe learning environment for all children.  

“We are deeply concerned that the Department of Education is not ensuring American K-12 schools are fostering a safe learning environment for all students following the terrorist organization Hamas’ violent attack on civilians, including Americans and Israeli citizens,” wrote the Senators.  “ . . . Parents should feel confident that their children’s school will be safe and the focus will be on education. Instead, parents are beginning to fear that not only is school not safe for their students, but school officials are actively working to undermine the safety of their children. . . . Some schools seem unwilling or unable to uphold their legal obligations under Title VI. Therefore, the Department should use its full resources to enforce the law.” 

Since the Hamas-led massacre against Israel on October 7th, there has been a disturbing rise in antisemitic incidents, including targeted harassment, directed at Jewish children in K-12 schools, including: 

• The Superintendent of Revere Public Schools in Massachusetts sending an email to school staff promoting resources that claimed, “Israeli terrorism has been significantly worse than that of the Palestinians.”
• A New York City middle school teacher and United Federation of Teachers’ (UFT) school representative sending an email to teachers’ union members deriding the UFT’s official statement denouncing the October 7 ^th attack and calling on the unions’ retirement system to “divest from weapons and other companies that are complicit in violations of Palestinians’ civil and land rights.”
• An 11-year-old in Manhattan Beach attack telling four Jewish girls at his school that “all Israelis and Jews should be killed.” and
• Students in San Francisco marching through the hallways of their high school chanting anti-Semitic slogans. 

Crapo and Risch are joined by U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Katie Britt (R-Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-Louisiana), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), Jeremy Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska), Rick Scott (R-Florida), Dan Sullivan (R-Arkansas), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Tommy Tuberville (R-Alaska) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi). 

Read the full letter here.