Nearly three years since the Zionist Organization of America filed a civil rights complaint against Fairfax County Public Schools, some Jewish parents said matters have only grown worse.
The ZOA complaint, filed in February 2022 with the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, claimed that FCPS in Virginia has failed to address its “hostile anti-Semitic environment” and listed antisemitic incidents at FCPS that officials allegedly knew of but did not respond to “appropriately and effectively.”
According to some Jewish FCPS parents, this “hostile environment” is still a fixture of their children’s schools, where students do not feel safe to be openly Jewish. Though the FCPS community had seen instances of antisemitism for years, many Jewish parents said the floodgates opened immediately following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Sarah* told Washington Jewish Week that her daughter, who attends Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, briefly stopped attending elementary school in December 2023 because she felt “alienated” as a Jewish student.
Sarah said her daughter was called an “Israeli bomber” by her elementary school classmates, which was written up as discriminatory harassment by the principal. Sarah said the incident should have been documented as antisemitism, and the principal later reissued the letter to reflect that change.
“She was called an Israeli bomber because she’s Jewish,” Sarah said, noting that her daughter is not of Israeli descent. “She has a Hebrew name; she’s one of only a couple Jewish students in her school, so it was a very targeted comment.”
A student also yelled, “Free Palestine!” at Sarah’s daughter as she was walking in the school cafeteria, an incident that the elementary school principal allegedly “refused” to document as antisemitism, Sarah said. She received a letter stating that the allegations of discriminatory harassment were “unfounded.” Sarah included this incident in her complaint to the Virginia Office of the Attorney General Office of Civil Rights. A spokesperson for FCPS declined to comment on the matter, citing Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
During a school-wide presentation that Sarah’s daughter gave about Chanukah, Sarah said the school librarian and the advanced academics resource teacher put up an “inaccurate map of Israel” behind her daughter.
“She didn’t say a single thing about Israel,” Sarah said of her daughter. “She was talking about Chanukah. The appropriate thing to put behind her would have been something related to Chanukah, not a 1957 map of Israel. To equate a Jewish person with Israel like that is antisemitic if you read the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition.”
Because of these instances and the presence of Christmas decorations in classrooms and the elementary school’s entrance, Sarah said her daughter felt unheard. The antisemitic incidents also exacerbated her daughter’s anxiety and depression, Sarah said.
Jennifer Katz, a mom of two, also filed a civil rights complaint. She said parents received an email from the principal of Woodson High School, where her older son attended, after Oct. 7, 2023, alerting the community that there would be a “monitored” student walkout in support of Palestine during the school day.
Katz replied to that email saying that she would keep her son home from school that day “out of fear of any discomfort, alienation, any type of retaliation that he might suffer because he wears a Star of David necklace and people know that he is Jewish.”
The principal replied that there would be a “safe space provided for Jewish students” inside the school building during the protest.
“In a public school system, my Jewish son is being provided a safe space from other students,” Katz said. “That is a violation of his civil rights. Why should a student need a safe space from other students?”
She filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office, noting that FCPS has seen “systemic, ongoing, unaddressed antisemitism … that has been going on for years.”
Caroline Csongos said her son, Alex’s, classmates at Fairfax High School asked if he was “for Israel” or “for Palestine” in October 2023, a question she said some high schoolers at FHS ask at random in the hallways regardless of a student’s perceived faith.
Alex came home from school asking, “’Am I on the wrong side? Is there something wrong with Israel and being Jewish?’”
Csongos said Alex has “expressed great fear” about being openly Jewish around his peers; only his closest friends know that he’s Jewish.
“He’s very, very fearful that people will know that he’s Jewish and will assume he’s a bad person and will make antisemitic comments because of the conflict in Israel,” Csongos said.
Susan Mosios, an art educator and one of “two or three” Jewish staff members at White Oaks Elementary School, said she observes behavior and language that is “clearly antisemitic” at school.
“I feel sad coming into my school,” Mosios said. “Emotionally, I don’t feel like it’s a safe space. I love teaching art … now I have a pit in my stomach every time I walk in the building.”
In response to what they call a “hostile environment” for Jewish students, many Jewish parents are calling on FCPS teachers and administrators to engage in training to learn how antisemitism manifests itself within classrooms.
Parents also largely want to see administrators call out antisemitic incidents specifically and promptly if they occur.
“In an ideal world, I would like to see Jewish students protected,” Katz said. “People that are working with Jewish students need to be educated on what antisemitism looks like and sounds like in its most obvious form and in its more subtle form.”
A spokesperson for FCPS told Washington Jewish Week that in response to heightened antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023, the Chief Equity Office team has worked with schools to foster a “safe, inclusive, and supportive community” for all through strategies such as professional development and training, summer 2024 antisemitism workshops, trainings on “responding to anti-Jewish ideas,” collaboration with community organizations, Holocaust speaker engagements and facilitated conversations between FCPS families and school-based administrators.
*Sarah is a pseudonym that this source assumed for privacy reasons.
