The U.S. Department of Education plans to probe alleged Jew-hatred at the Etiwanda School District in Southern California in March 2025, it told the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Anti-Defamation League and StandWithUs, which filed the complaint, the groups said on Thursday.
A Jewish student at Etiwanda Intermediate School was repeatedly subjected to antisemitic harassment, including a student allegedly hitting her with a stick and choking her. When the Jewish student cried out for help, the alleged assailant told her to “shut your stupid Jewish a** up,” according to the complaint.
The trio said that it told the Education Department about further incidents that allegedly occurred at the school, including students performing Nazi salutes in hallways and a student admitting to loving “making Jews uncomfortable, especially with Hitler jokes.”
Joel Taubman, an attorney and director of student programs at the Brandeis Center, told JNS that “this was a case where Etiwanda had a hostile environment against Jewish students.”
“An antisemitic hostile environment was reported to Etiwanda and rather than act upon it, they failed to act,” he said. “They let a family see that reports wouldn’t go anywhere, and then incidents happened again and again and again.”
The department’s decision to investigate the district shows that it thinks that “our allegations, if true, are violations of the law,” Taubman said. (JNS sought comment from the department.)
There are “many actions” that the district, which educates nearly 14,000 students in 17 schools, could take to better address Jew-hatred, including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and improving its programming and reporting mechanisms, according to Taubman.
“We want the whole community to see improvement and for really a message to be sent that this doesn’t have to be the way,” he told JNS. “The message to others should be that they can address antisemitism as it’s reported to them and as they hear about it, rather than letting issues fester.”
Laura Rowland, district superintendent, told JNS that she cannot discuss details of incidents with students under federal and state law, but “we can state that the Etiwanda School District, its dedicated teachers and trained staff do not tolerate antisemitism or racism in any form.”
“Etiwanda is committed to taking all necessary actions, including discipline where appropriate, to address and ameliorate discrimination and harassment based on actual or perceived Jewish shared ancestry or ethnicity,” she said. “Antisemitic bullying, harassment and targeting of Jewish students because of their Jewish ancestral and ethnic identity is contrary to Etiwanda’s institutional values and conduct codes and is unacceptable.”
Rowland added that “we have instituted policies to thoroughly investigate all claims of hostile acts and take appropriate action.”
