Monday, November 11, 2013

Anti-Semitism Hits NY's Pine Bush School District; Three Jewish Families Slap District with Lawsuit

Joan Carbone -- superintendent of the Pine Bush Central School District located 90 miles north of New York City -- acknowledged in a statement issued yesterday that the school district is getting "much media attention" since a New York Times article published on November 8 reported on years of swastikas and anti-Semitic behavior on the part of students there, the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) website reports today (November 11, 2013).

The alleged behavior has caused three Jewish families to file a lawsuit against the school district and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to order investigations into the allegations of anti-Semitic harassment. Several parents have said that the school district has not taken the anti-Semitic incidents seriously.

"We are confident that the investigations from the Governor's office will demonstrate our intolerance for racism and acceptance of diversity in our District," Carbone wrote in the statement.

Citing depositions in the lawsuit, The New York Times reported that Jewish students have complained of anti-Semitic epithets and nicknames, jokes about the Holocaust, being forced to retrieve coins from dumpsters, and physical violence. Fellow students are also accused of making Nazi salutes and telling anti-Semitic jokes. 

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