Students get $4.5M payout for enduring anti-Semitic bullying

NY Post ^ | July 10, 2015 | Jennifer Bain and Josh Saul

[EinNYC]

A federal judge approved a $4.5 million settlement Thursday for five students who suffered anti-Semitic abuse at upstate schools.

The students and their families had sued the Pine Bush school district in 2012, accusing administrators of turning a blind eye to swastika graffiti, Holocaust jokes and violent attacks against Jewish students at elementary, middle and high schools.

[EinNYC]

Heck, I was subjected to much the same treatment in the 70s by various of my jr. high and high school teachers. One teacher made me stand out in the hall because I refused to sing Xmas carols in music class. She also flunked me that marking period, which knocked me off the honor roll. One high school teacher used to say stuff to me like, "Sniff, sniff. I smell gas. Hitler knew what to do with you people!" and "Your skull would make a great paperweight!" Another teacher put his arm around me and announced to the class, "I LIKE Jewish people!" (no he didn't...). No one encouraged me to sue the school system. I never even told my parents, because I knew my dad would get apoplectic and I didn't want him to have a heart attack.

[ozdragon]

I have found self-help very effective.
In 1967, as a freshman at a large Midwest university, I was subject to similar abuse from another student in my dorm. One evening he was particularly nasty. I returned the favor with my fists, leaving him lying on the floor in the fetal position bleeding from the face. The football players that lived down the hall broke up the fight and ordered 2 other students to take the offender to the infirmary.
Bottom line: no one messed with me again and the football players became my closest friends. BTW I was 5’7” 155 lbs at the time.

[Catsrus]

I’m sorry you had to endure this humiliation. Who do these people think they are to bash and make such remarks because of your faith? Never mind the nasty, horrific remarks about Hitler. Horrific!!

[Vaquero]

Everyone’s a victim.
Some brain dead jerk scratched a little swastica on the car I let my son drive to school around 7years ago. We are Italian-Irish catholic. Back in junior HS I would draw pictures of American planes shooting down nazi planes with swastica on them. Today if I was in school and did that I would be suspended or expelled for A) drawing a gun shooting and B) drawing the crooked cross. Anyway we complained to the asst. principal about the paint damage and he went off on a tirade about HATE CRIME!! I said no, it’s just a retarded jerk damaging my car. “But we must tell the police about their hate crime”. The leftist jerk repeated. I stopped him right there “There are no such thing as hate crimes...only crimes....this is not 1984 where they have thought crimes...Forget about it” and I left. I’d rather deal with the dumb kid who scratched my paint than the administrator who made a fuss about hate.

BTW back in school in the 50s, 60s, I would rank out anyone from a different social or religious background and they would do it back to me...then we all laughed

[Gefn]

You didn’t get it as bad as I did, but I got teased frequently in HS for being Jewish. I was the only Jew in my class in a Jersey suburb. The one time I told my parents, my dad told me to suck it up, it won’t be the first time in my life I would have to deal with it, and it wouldn’t be the last,

[Dr. Sivana]

Wow. I went to public elementary school in the ‘70s, and the Jewish kid around the corner was a friend of mine, and when we made fun of him, it wasn’t for being Jewish. He didn’t mind singing the Christmas Carols, but then again, a couple of Hanukkah songs were thrown into the program, and we all sung those as well. He was only moderately observant (mostly for Passover, when we got a small bonanza of food), and loved having an ice cream sandwich after his hamburger.

There were more Jewish kids in the prep school I went to, and the worst I remember was one kid entertaining himself by throwing pennies and nickels for the Jewish kid (also a friend to this day) to chase, which he did willingly (money is money). No problems other than that in 12 years of school in Connecticut.

[Old Sarge]

Who do these people think they are to bash and make such remarks because of your faith?

Ask the Religion Moderator...

[Captain Rhino]

General information: Do a search on Pine Bush school district New York anti-Semitism to get the background on this case. Major NYC paper coverage. The Village Voice provides a lot of community Twitter comments.

[MNDude]

I guarantee that as we speak, a lawyer, a judge, and a “married” gay couple are plotting to sue Christian schools millions around the country for refusing married couple boarding and other things.

[Old Sarge]

will do.

[Old Sarge]

You saw where a homosexual is suing the publishers of the Bible for $70 million because the Bible offends?

[wideawake]

This is part of an ongoing cultural war between the Satmar and the non-frum in this community.

The Satmar are an effective voting majority in the district, their children do not attend public school, and so they are voting to defund the public schools.

The non-frum minority feel that they are now second class citizens in the town they grew up in.

It's created quite a backlash.

[popdonnelly]

Finally, some actual justice from the courts!

[EinNYC]

I have found self-help very effective.

The very first instance of anti-semitism I ever experienced (I grew up outside of NYC) was in the 6th grade. I was in the process of securing my bike to the school bike rack, using a length of the same heavy chain my uncle used to secure bulls in his truck, when a kid on the other side of the rack called me a "kike". I had never heard that term before, so I asked him what it meant. "Dirty Jew ba____d" was the reply. That was the last thing that mouth uttered for quite some time, as I swung that heavy chain around to crack it across his face. Only his eyes were visible in that sea of blood. He knew better than to mention it to any school authority or his parents. Eventually, his face healed from his "stumble in the playground" and he NEVER opened that ugly mouth to me again.

As an adult, I've had people in a small town in Texas actually give me a 360 degree look over. When I asked them why they were looking me over so carefully, one of them earnestly said, "We're looking for the horns." I had to go home and do some internet research to find out what THAT meant. It is the result of a mistranslation of a Biblical phrase, of a word that could be translated (correctly in this context) as "rays" emanating from the forehead of Moses, or in other contexts "horns". I also had the windshield of a rental car in San Antonio smashed by a huge rock dropped through it while parked overnight in a synagogue's parking lot. And currently, I find it "interesting" that all the extra tutoring sessions, special events, invited speakers, etc. for a class I'm taking now are scheduled for Friday nights and Saturdays. I won't even be able to attend my own graduation from this year-long course, as they scheduled it for Friday night. The head of this school didn't even have the courtesy to reply to my email regarding this matter!

[keats5]

Whereas I don’t usually like to see the victim mentality awarded, I applaud this decision. Antisemitism has been growing in this country, and this is the first thing I’ve read lately that may actually make a difference.