Nyack latest Lower Hudson school district to see, address racist or antisemitic incidents
A Nyack elementary school is the most recent school in the Lower Hudson Valley to see the scrawling of racist or antisemitic graffiti.
In an email to families Friday, Nyack Superintendent Susan Yom said the Clarkstown Police Department and school district were investigating the appearance of the n-word on a Liberty Elementary School bathroom wall.
"This word is a racist and offensive slur that is not reflective of our commitment to eliminate all forms of racism from our District," Yom wrote. "We are deeply troubled that hateful and bigoted vandalism was scrawled in a building where we should all feel safe and welcomed. We must call out this act for what it is: racist, unacceptable and abhorrent."
Yom said the word was removed from the wall.
The incident comes just a few weeks after Nyack and Lakeland School District were investigating reports that spectators taunted Nyack cheerleaders during a varsity football game
Other recent incidents in Lower Hudson schools
Nyack is just one district in the region to see racist behavior in recent days.
A Carmel High School student was arrested last month, weeks after staff and students found a swastika and "Adolf Hitler" scratched into the tennis courts at the high school. An Oct. 3 email to the school community from the school board also noted a swastika carved into a table leg at the high school.
In an email to the community this past Thursday, Interim Carmel Superintendent Joseph McGrath said of those incidents, "We send those notices because we do not want to normalize antisemitism or make hate speech of any form acceptable in our schools. We value the safety of every student in our schools, regardless of background, so we call out hate incidents in real time."
Edgemont Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton also addressed two recent racist incidents in an email Thursday.
Hamilton told the community that a student at the Junior Senior High School wore blackface during Halloween festivities and another student "likened a monkey on the board to an Edgemont student of color."
"It is essential to provide context for why blackface and all degrading acts are both harmful and racist," Hamilton wrote. "Identifying a student in reference to a monkey is also equally harmful and racist. These practices have caused profound pain and suffering for Black communities and are a painful reminder of our nation's history of racism."
In June, Hamilton wrote to the community that several swastikas were found on a desk, in a textbook and in a bathroom. Hamilton said they were reported to the Greenburgh Police Department.
How schools address hatred
Hamilton said the district's Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee would meet Monday to discuss the incidents.
"The goal of this discussion is to promote a deeper understanding of why actions like blackface and other epithets are harmful and perpetuate racial stereotypes and discrimination," he said in Thursday's email.
In June, Hamilton listed several actions the district was taking in response to the swastikas, including seeking guidance from the ADL's school program No Place for Hate and the American Jewish Committee; engaging with local clergy; initiating a committee to address hatred; and developing lesson plans addressing the historical context of the swastika.
"They're not shying away from it," said Steve Goldberg, director of education at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center in White Plains, of Carmel and Edgemont.
Goldberg gave a presentation in Carmel on Tuesday night titled "Exploring the Symbols and Language of Hate" and planned to return to Carmel this week to discuss the history of antisemitism to faculty.
He is also working with Edgemont.
"It's a matter of educating kids to respect the differences in people," Goldberg said.
He also said a lot of kids don't necessarily understand the significance of what they've done. They need to understand that words and symbols can hurt, he said.
Earlier this year, swastikas were found at Clarkstown South High School. School officials encouraged parents to talk to their kids about recognizing hate and discrimination.
The Anti-Defamation League said in March that New York saw a 39% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2022 compared to the year before. The ADL also reported a spike in antisemitic incidents since Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.
Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Lower Hudson NY schools see spate of racist, antisemitic incidents
