Six teenagers were apprehended and charged for their alleged role in antisemitic vandalism at a Fairfax County high school, according to a Dec. 10, 1992, article in Washington Jewish Week. Three decades later, things aren’t much better.
In the early 1990s, some McLean High School students were accused of a series of antisemitic incidents, from vandalism of a Falls Church synagogue to playing anti-Jewish “games” in school hallways. The vandalism at McLean High School, which reportedly included swastikas and other “anti-Jewish expressions” spray-painted on a gymnasium wall, was the third such incident.
Three of the teens found responsible were enrolled at McLean High and were immediately suspended, according to the 1992 article. All six of the teens, ages 15 to 17, were charged with misdemeanor destruction of property and trespassing on school property.
The article, “Six Charged With Vandalism,” noted that because Virginia had no hate crime statutes at the time of writing, the incident was categorized as destruction of property. Now, Virginia law includes harsher criminal penalties when a crime is motivated by bias against the victim’s race, color, religion or national origin.
Many Jewish parents in recent years have expressed concerns about rampant antisemitism in the Fairfax County Public Schools. In 2022, the Zionist Organization of America filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, saying that FCPS had failed to address its “hostile anti-Semitic environment.”
In the years since, Fairfax Jewish parents have filed their own civil rights complaints against FCPS — one mother said the antisemitic harassment and alienation was so bad that her Jewish daughter briefly stopped attending school. And the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently launched an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in the school district.
Although much can happen over the course of 33 years — such as the passage of a hate crime law — some issues remain persistent.
