Chappaqua Schools Reports Two Anti-Semitic Incidents at Greeley HS
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Horace Greeley High School experienced two anti-Semitic incidents in the last two weeks, district officials revealed last week.
In her report to the community, Board of Education President Hilary Grasso said a swastika was found in a school bathroom last Tuesday, Oct. 10.
The prior week, during the school’s annual Community Service Expo, students reported to the district that one of the organizations invited to the event had included anti-Semitic imagery on its posters, said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christine Ackerman.
When the representative of the organization was confronted, she left the building. Later, during public comments, two parents identified the organization as WESPAC, which had been at the event to engage students about climate change, Grasso said.
The White Plains-based WESPAC Foundation, which has been deemed a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League, had one of its posters taped to a wall at the high school last May, with anti-Zionist imagery, igniting outrage among member of the community. The organization has now been barred from the district’s grounds.
Ackerman said she is responsible for what happens within the district’s buildings and on its campuses.
“I take full responsibility for what happened at the service expo, and I will take the necessary steps with the high school team to make sure it doesn’t happen again within our spaces,” Ackerman said at least week’s board meeting. “I’m in charge of them. We need to do better for our kids.”
The discovery of the swastika in the bathroom happened three days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and subsequent rally in Manhattan where swastikas were displayed.
“None of our students or anyone else in our buildings or in our community should ever feel threatened in our school,” Grasso said.
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