Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found At East Brunswick Elementary

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered Friday afternoon at an East Brunswick elementary school, according to East Brunswick schools Superintendent Dr. Victor Valeski. The graffiti was found by an elementary school student at Lawrence Brook Elementary, he said.

The student found it written inside a play structure on the playground towards the end of the school day. Dr. Valeski declined to tell Patch exactly what the words said, only that they were anti-Semitic in nature and that they were written fairly high up on the structure.

"We do not think this was an elementary student who wrote this," he said. "You have to be at least 5'5" tall. We think this may be connected to an earlier incident."

The school immediately cordoned off the area, took photos of the writing and contacted East Brunswick police, he said. Both the district and the police are investigating the incident, and will be interviewing several people over the next few days, he said.

Dr. Valeski also said he thinks Friday's incident may be a reaction to the heightened conversation about bias and hate crimes taking place in East Brunswick right now, which has gotten media attention from Patch and other outlets. As Patch reported, swatiskas and the words 'Kill All Ze Jews' were found carved in a desk at Churchill Junior High School in March. One dad accused the district of not taking the matter seriously enough, something the district and school board denied.

"Right now, we are talking about bias incidents a lot more in our schools, at home and in houses of worship throughout town," the superintendent said. "So it may in part be a reaction to that. We're also being much more aggressive about finding and rooting this stuff out. We're literally turning over every desk and looking in every classroom now."

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Photo via East Brunswick Public Schools