another antisemitic vandalism incident at Walt Whitman yesterday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in bethesda and really have a hard time believing this represents a larger trend in the community. I suspect it is either a couple disturbed people or someone coming in from outside the community trying to stir up trouble. I wish they’d catch the person or people as I feel like this is probably a warning sign of someone who is disturbed and will go on to more dangerous behavior like a shooting incident or hate crime.

I wish people would stop downplaying the amount of antisemitism that has reared its ugly head here in Montgomery County. Having grown up here, I can tell you that I don't remember these types of incidents with any regularity. In fact, growing up Jewish in Montgomery County was pretty comfortable since we have a large Jewish population. What's going on today is becoming alarming. Just a few weeks ago I believe someone painted gallows and swastika's on the Bethesda Trolley trail. They have found swastika's at Montgomery Mall in the past week. My sister even received a very odd mailing at her Bethesda home with twisted facts about Jews recently. No doubt whoever is doing these things is disturbed but it seems to also be representative of something in our culture that people want to normalize these incidents. They aren't normal, they are very scary and we could be going down a very slippery and dangerous slope.

This isn't completely new to the area. I grew up in in Rockville, and both my elementary school and high school were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in the 1980s (high school was the year before I started there, elementary school was when I was a student).

Exactly. This is not new to Montgomery County, the main difference is the degree of publicity surrounding these incidents is exponentially greater today. I grew up in Potomac and in the 1980's several houses in my neighborhood were hit with swastikas spray painted and phrases like "Jews Go Home." A few weeks later my synagogue was vandalized with similar graffiti. I never heard about these incidents on the news nor was there ever any update concerning an arrest.

[Anonymous]

My DS went to another W feeder middle school with a high Jewish population. I was flabbergasted when he came home on day and told me that one of his teachers in photography was helping students and literally said to one of them "I just showed you how to do that". When the kid said "no you didn't you helped _________", the teacher responded with "oh, you Jewish kids all look alike". I could not believe it and wanted to report it to the school but my DS didn't want to be involved in the investigation of the situation or pull his friends into it. Being 12, he just said, "I'm sure he was just kidding". NOT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS went to another W feeder middle school with a high Jewish population. I was flabbergasted when he came home on day and told me that one of his teachers in photography was helping students and literally said to one of them "I just showed you how to do that". When the kid said "no you didn't you helped _________", the teacher responded with "oh, you Jewish kids all look alike". I could not believe it and wanted to report it to the school but my DS didn't want to be involved in the investigation of the situation or pull his friends into it. Being 12, he just said, "I'm sure he was just kidding". NOT

DS Spanish Middle School teacher told him (after he mentioned he celebrated YK) that Zionism is essentially terrorism. Wtf??

[Anonymous]

If nothing else I hope MCPS is beginning to u understand that they need to include antisemitism in its anti bias training. I think many Jewish kids try to fly below the radar and often suffer silently to avoid worse treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If nothing else I hope MCPS is beginning to u understand that they need to include antisemitism in its anti bias training. I think many Jewish kids try to fly below the radar and often suffer silently to avoid worse treatment.

Agreed!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS went to another W feeder middle school with a high Jewish population. I was flabbergasted when he came home on day and told me that one of his teachers in photography was helping students and literally said to one of them "I just showed you how to do that". When the kid said "no you didn't you helped _________", the teacher responded with "oh, you Jewish kids all look alike". I could not believe it and wanted to report it to the school but my DS didn't want to be involved in the investigation of the situation or pull his friends into it. Being 12, he just said, "I'm sure he was just kidding". NOT

Are you kidding me? This is exactly what you need to report. This is antisemitism, and you cannot stay silent about it.

[Anonymous]

See folks, things will never change at the W schools when you have parents (the two above) making excuses for racist incidents.

True, but W parents always look to excuse or sweep their children's terrible behavior under the rug.

So true. The parents will do anything to make excuses or sweep the behavior under the rug. If it is indeed the Whitman students who did this, what type of punishment are they receiving?

I was reading the Colby College student newspaper. There was a recent article about how students in marginalized communities were targeted in racist, anti-Semitic, homophobia and transphobia messages on Yik Yak. https://colbyecho.news/2022/12/08/anonymous-hate-speech-targets-marginalized-communities/

The President of Colby said he would do everything in his power to remove the students responsible for the hate speech from the college community.

That got me to thinking - if these indeed were Whitman students who wrote the anti-Semitic messages, they need to face real consequences. Not just a class on diversity. Would it be possible (or is it being done already? I really have no idea) to include character on college recommendations from the counselor? To be kicked out of clubs that say they take character into account ( I remember rolling my eyes at all the kids in get into NHS or NJHS - character counts for those organizations - but the kids are little jerks and don't have character)? Make some on the college recommendation about certain incidents? That is a real consequence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

See folks, things will never change at the W schools when you have parents (the two above) making excuses for racist incidents.

True, but W parents always look to excuse or sweep their children's terrible behavior under the rug.

So true. The parents will do anything to make excuses or sweep the behavior under the rug. If it is indeed the Whitman students who did this, what type of punishment are they receiving?

I was reading the Colby College student newspaper. There was a recent article about how students in marginalized communities were targeted in racist, anti-Semitic, homophobia and transphobia messages on Yik Yak. https://colbyecho.news/2022/12/08/anonymous-hate-speech-targets-marginalized-communities/

The President of Colby said he would do everything in his power to remove the students responsible for the hate speech from the college community.

That got me to thinking - if these indeed were Whitman students who wrote the anti-Semitic messages, they need to face real consequences. Not just a class on diversity. Would it be possible (or is it being done already? I really have no idea) to include character on college recommendations from the counselor? To be kicked out of clubs that say they take character into account ( I remember rolling my eyes at all the kids in get into NHS or NJHS - character counts for those organizations - but the kids are little jerks and don't have character)? Make some on the college recommendation about certain incidents? That is a real consequence.

They committed a crime (vandalism) so that's a real consequence. Probably better than what MCPS can dish out too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

See folks, things will never change at the W schools when you have parents (the two above) making excuses for racist incidents.

True, but W parents always look to excuse or sweep their children's terrible behavior under the rug.

So true. The parents will do anything to make excuses or sweep the behavior under the rug. If it is indeed the Whitman students who did this, what type of punishment are they receiving?

I was reading the Colby College student newspaper. There was a recent article about how students in marginalized communities were targeted in racist, anti-Semitic, homophobia and transphobia messages on Yik Yak. https://colbyecho.news/2022/12/08/anonymous-hate-speech-targets-marginalized-communities/

The President of Colby said he would do everything in his power to remove the students responsible for the hate speech from the college community.

That got me to thinking - if these indeed were Whitman students who wrote the anti-Semitic messages, they need to face real consequences. Not just a class on diversity. Would it be possible (or is it being done already? I really have no idea) to include character on college recommendations from the counselor? To be kicked out of clubs that say they take character into account ( I remember rolling my eyes at all the kids in get into NHS or NJHS - character counts for those organizations - but the kids are little jerks and don't have character)? Make some on the college recommendation about certain incidents? That is a real consequence.

They committed a crime (vandalism) so that's a real consequence. Probably better than what MCPS can dish out too.

But what is the consequence? Community Service? Will it go on their records and will colleges be notified about it?

[Anonymous]

Saw the indoor walkout on the news. Would of made more of splash if they were outside in the rain. Looks like another day of not going to class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

See folks, things will never change at the W schools when you have parents (the two above) making excuses for racist incidents.

True, but W parents always look to excuse or sweep their children's terrible behavior under the rug.

So true. The parents will do anything to make excuses or sweep the behavior under the rug. If it is indeed the Whitman students who did this, what type of punishment are they receiving?

I was reading the Colby College student newspaper. There was a recent article about how students in marginalized communities were targeted in racist, anti-Semitic, homophobia and transphobia messages on Yik Yak. https://colbyecho.news/2022/12/08/anonymous-hate-speech-targets-marginalized-communities/

The President of Colby said he would do everything in his power to remove the students responsible for the hate speech from the college community.

That got me to thinking - if these indeed were Whitman students who wrote the anti-Semitic messages, they need to face real consequences. Not just a class on diversity. Would it be possible (or is it being done already? I really have no idea) to include character on college recommendations from the counselor? To be kicked out of clubs that say they take character into account ( I remember rolling my eyes at all the kids in get into NHS or NJHS - character counts for those organizations - but the kids are little jerks and don't have character)? Make some on the college recommendation about certain incidents? That is a real consequence.

They committed a crime (vandalism) so that's a real consequence. Probably better than what MCPS can dish out too.

But what is the consequence? Community Service? Will it go on their records and will colleges be notified about it?

It depends on the value of the destruction. It can be up to 3 years in prison, or 60 days if the value is lower. That's the maximum -- a first-time offender probably wouldn't get that.

[Anonymous]

I saw the walkout coverage. I thought it was great that one of the rabbis gave the students stuff to say and do when someone makes a racist or antisemitic comment. She had them practice it. The students who spoke at the walkout talked about how bad it was when they were at pyle. Maybe the same rabbi can speak there and to staff too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the walkout coverage. I thought it was great that one of the rabbis gave the students stuff to say and do when someone makes a racist or antisemitic comment. She had them practice it. The students who spoke at the walkout talked about how bad it was when they were at pyle. Maybe the same rabbi can speak there and to staff too.

This

[Anonymous]

I’m not Jewish but have a lot of Jewish friends and family members. This is just so astounding to me that there is this level of anti-semitism in Bethesda. I live in a bubble, I guess. My kids have Jewish last names (and some of them look ethnically Ashkenazi, I think) so many people assume they are Jewish but I don’t think they’ve experienced any of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not Jewish but have a lot of Jewish friends and family members. This is just so astounding to me that there is this level of anti-semitism in Bethesda. I live in a bubble, I guess. My kids have Jewish last names (and some of them look ethnically Ashkenazi, I think) so many people assume they are Jewish but I don’t think they’ve experienced any of this.

So far "this level" has just been words not violence, thankfully.