A California school system failed to follow the 1964 Civil Rights Act by not protecting Jewish students from antisemitism, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
That office announced on Friday that the Carmel Unified School District in central California signed an agreement to resolve Title VI violations dating back to 15 incidents starting in 2021 but extending through 2024.
They include swastikas and antisemitic vandalism that resulted in a hostile environment for Jewish students the district failed to address, leaving the problem to fester in the tony community.
The resolution agreement between the nine Carmel schools and the OCR features a number of steps, including reviewing incidents over the last three years to determine additional action; analyzing policies for responding to harassment reports; implementing new forms of tracking bigotry; assessing hostile environments district-wide; training staff; and educating students and parents for how to identify abusive behavior.
The district will also need to report to the OCR about its responses to hate reports during the next two school years.