Exclusive | More swastikas surface at ritzy California school district as parents sound alarm on spike in hate incidents
Jewish parents in one of California’s wealthiest counties are furious over what they see as a yearslong failure to confront bigotry — amid a disturbing rash of antisemitic graffiti and hate speech by children at local public schools.Just last week, a swastika was scrawled over a set of lockers at a middle school in Ross Valley School District — at least the sixth instance of antisemitic graffiti since 2020 at the district in leafy Marin County outside of San Francisco, The California Post has learned.“The system is failing us, and it feels like without a real shake, it’s just going to be kind of like some nice words.
We’ve heard many nice words and a lot of verbose statements,” said Yair Levin, who is Jewish and has two kids in the district.The swastika graffiti, which was quickly removed, was the second hate incident in one month after a 12- and 13-year old were cited in a possible hate crime after allegedly scrawling “I hate Jews” on the grounds of Brookside Elementary School.Parents told The Post they were forced to take matters into their own hands — knocking on doors and putting up a $10,000 reward to help locate the teen perpetrators.At least two swastika incidents between 2020 to 2023 were never reported to the police nor immediately communicated to parents by district officials, parents said.
Ross Valley School District Superintendent Tyler Graff said his district takes all incidents seriously.“I personally cleaned the graffiti within 2 hours of being notified of the incident even though it was on a weekend evening,” he said on the graffiti allegedly drawn by two students.“We take all incidents of hate speech seriously and will continue to apply the approach we took here to any future events that happen.”The first incident, in February 2020, happened at Brookside with a swastika chalked on campus over the break.
The district the following March barely mentioned it in a newsletter, viewed by The Post, admitting it was likely dr...