Some recent anti-Semitic incidents at schools in East Cobb turned out students and parents Thursday night at the Cobb Board of Education meeting.
During an evening public comment period, they urged the Cobb County School District to take stronger action to curb what they say aren’t isolated incidents, but becoming too frequent.
Recently swastikas were discovered drawn on walls at Dickerson Middle School and Wheeler High School.
In addition, Samantha Epstein, a Wheeler freshman, told school board members that a teacher in one of her classes showed slides she thought were anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian.
Days later, in the same AP Human Geography class, she said, a slide of a cartoon of an Israeli soldier with a broom sweeping up Palestinian bodies was described as ethnic cleansing.
“I’m the only Jewish student in the class, I immediately felt uncomfortable,” said Epstein, who added that she and her older siblings, who have attended Wheeler and Campbell High School, also have been exposed to other instances of anti-Semitism at school.
That included an incident at East Cobb Middle School, when her sister was in eighth grade there, and who saw other students wearing swastika armbands giving a Nazi salute that were posted to social media.
Epstein said when she was at ECMS last year, she saw a teacher post a pro-Palestinian sign after the Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens that triggered the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
“We want to feel safe in our schools and know that even though our religious beliefs are different, we are treated fairly and equally,” she said.
The district has said that the graphics used in Epstein’s class have been removed from the curriculum.
Dickerson parent Mindy Melnikowski said she complained in the fall of 2023 that her then-seventh-grade son was taught “historical inaccuracies and anti-Semitic tropes using unapproved resources embedded deep in CTLS [the district’s main online curriculum portal] to appear legitimate.”
“Despite months of urging school officials to correct the damage, no action was taken,” Melknikowski said. “Last week, the consequences were clear. Swastikas on the walls and students giving Nazi salutes.
“This should not come as a surprise. When teachers spread misinformation unchecked, hate follows.”
Wheeler student Abdul Aziz Abasa, a student in the same class as Epstein, said the incidents at Dickerson and Wheeler “are completely different” and that “we want everyone to get a diverse amount of information” even about such highly-charged topics.
He said that the graphic in his class depicting Israeli soldiers included individuals from a variety of ethnic groups, and that teachers should have some “leeway” in exposing students to a variety of viewpoints
“We should be open to media that is critical of other military groups, and to censor media infringes on our First Amendment right,” Abasa said.
Leona Blumberg, who has twins who have attended Dickerson and Mt. Bethel Elementary School, said her son was told at the latter school by another student that “Hitler didn’t do enough or “Hitler should have wiped out the rest of your family.
“Most of my family was wiped out by Hitler.”
She said the most distressing issue has been a lack of response from the school or school district to Jewish parents.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale addressed the comments later in the meeting, saying the district was “taking action” but didn’t elaborate.
He said that while “we cannot discuss actions that may already have been taken, rest assured that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in any form.”
Ragsdale recounted the story of his father, a German prisoner-of-war who was tortured during World War II.
“He lived with those scars for the rest of his life, and while I may not be Jewish, anti-Semitism has a resounding negative impact on me.”
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