BALTIMORE CITY — The Anti-Defamation League has filed a civil rights complaint against Baltimore City Public Schools, claiming the school system failed to protect Jewish students from harassment.
The 22-page complaint, filed on July 22, details several instances of antisemitic incidents at various schools in the City.
In one case, it accuses a teacher at Bard High School of performing a Nazi salute three times during an English seminar discussion on Shakespeare, and directed the salute at the only Jewish student in the class.
WATCH: Teacher accused of directing Nazi salute to only Jewish student in English class
The student reported the incident, with the complaint eventually escalating to the BCPSS Department of Fair Practices.
"Despite substantiating Student A's report of antisemitic discrimination, upon information and belief, BCPSS has failed to take any disciplinary action against [teacher's name redacted], who continues to serve on the [redacted] Faculty at Bard and, astonishingly, as the Assistant Dean [redacted]," the complaint states.
The teacher is still employed with the school district, according to City Schools.
The ADL also notes several instances of bullying at the Mount Washington School and dismay that many of those bullying investigations were found to be "inconclusive."
An In Focus look at reported antisemitic incidents
"The Baltimore Jewish Council and The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore are deeply concerned by the allegations about the Baltimore City school system outlined in this complaint to the U.S. Department of Education," said Howard Libit, the Executive Director of the Baltimore Jewish Council. " We are grateful for our partnership with the ADL, which has assigned its legal resources to this investigation and complaint."
Andre Riley, executive director of communications for Baltimore City Public Schools, took questions about the filing Wednesday afternoon.
“We reject antisemitism, we reject racism, any kind of harassment, it could be about," says Andre Riley, Executive Director of Communications for Baltimore City Public Schools. "Because we want you to learn. You can’t learn if you’re scared or you don’t feel welcome in our schools. That’s our commitment, and we’re going to stick to it.”
Riley told reporters the school system "didn’t want to hear that about ourselves, but we know bullying is a challenge and we’re determined to eradicate it.”
On some of the investigations referenced in the complaint - namely, at Bard and Mount Washington - Riley supported the School District's action.
"In both of those cases, we acted in the moment," he said. "We're pretty efficient in conducting an investigation and taking the right steps. We also understand the solutions we sometimes come up with are not seen as palatable, sometimes folks don't feel like we have helped them. But our record shows that when we knew about two particular instances, we acted promptly."
"And why am I calling those out and maybe not all of them?" Riley added, "Because some of the others are still in progress. Those have a definitive beginning, middle and end. So members of those school communities, they're not feeling great about themselves right now," he acknowledged. "They care about kids, and they're hearing 'you allowed antisemitic behavior.' They don't, we don't, as a school district. So while we have feelings about how those schools were mentioned, they took appropriate action, and so did we as a school district."
The ADL's filing, meantime, recommended 11 remedies, including training and education to curb antisemitism.
