Dad Says East Brunswick Schools Downplay Bias Incidents

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — An East Brunswick dad is accusing the East Brunswick school district of downplaying racist and anti-Semitic incidents, something both the school board and superintendent deny, but says it's something they want to work to improve.

The initial incident happened in March, when a student in a 9th grade biology class at Churchill Junior High School discovered anti-Semitic writing scratched into a desk. There were various swastikas, as well as a picture of Hitler along with the words "Kill all ze Jews." The student told the teacher, and the desk was immediately removed.

Jon Dressner, an East Brunswick parent whose daughter was in that class, said the first time he heard about it was over dinner one night, when his daughter casually mentioned the graffiti had been found in her class.

"I never got a letter from the district about it," he told Patch. "Their fall-back strategy seems to be 'sweep it under the rug/don't let people know' when things like this occur. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they act this way."

East Brunswick is a high-performing school district in an extremely diverse, upper middle-class part of New Jersey.

Since then, Dressner has been petitioning the East Brunswick school district to have handled the incident differently: He thinks they should have put out a letter right away to all parents, informing them the writing was found. He also thinks the junior high should have held an assembly to educate the students about what happened, and why it is wrong. The district picked up few of his suggestions.

But East Brunswick does take incidents like this seriously, Superintendent Dr. Victor Valeski says. The teacher immediately told administrators, and Churchill's three school security officers did their own investigation, including interviewing students to see if anyone was a witness to the graffiti. As is their policy, the district also contacted the East Brunswick Police Department, which launched a criminal investigation into the writing. The matter went as high up as the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, which ultimately concluded the graffiti did not rise to the level of a hate crime, because no specific student or act was threatened.

"Mr. Dressner and his ex-wife met with me," Dr. Valeski said. "What they wanted was a blanket statement to raise awareness; they wanted me to put out a letter saying this is not representative of our organization and he wanted to create a teachable moment. He didn't think we were doing enough to raise awareness with all students."

The School Board did eventually did put out a letter to all East Brunswick parents, letting them know the incident happened.

But Dressner says there is a persistent problem in East Brunswick schools with ignoring or downplaying hate incidents. He asked people to speak at a May 11 board of Ed. meeting, and eight people did, including Dressner, his daughter, son and ex-wife. His son Alexander, who is now in college, said when he was a student at Hammarskjold Middle School, he remembers 'Kick a Jew Day.'

"It was started by one particular student and quickly spread to others," the young man said, according to MyCentralJersey. "Kids would walk up to you and kick you in the leg or slap a Post-It on your back that said 'Kick a Jew.' In ninth grade, pennies were thrown at me and fellow Jewish students, often followed by the question, 'Aren't you going to pick that up?'"

A female Muslim student also testified that some students made cruel remarks to her once she started wearing a hijab.

According to Dr. Valeski, May 11 was the first time many had even heard of these incidents.

"Some of the incidents happened 10 years ago, and we don't have evidence or documentation now that they occurred," he said. "If these things happen, students have to report them to a staff member right away."

The school board president, Todd Simmens, was more blunt.

"We can't chase what we don't know," he said. "All throughout the year we do get the occasional incident of bias and we deal with them right away under our Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) protocol. Some of these incidents were never reported."

"The Middlesex County Prosecutor told us we're doing more than most districts he sees in terms of prevention and response," he continued. "But we can't have an assembly after every HIB incident."

Dr. Valeski said that after the writing was found, the district met with the Jewish Federation to discuss making Jewish students more comfortable. Dressner contacted the Anti-Defamation League, and Valeski said he spoke with an ADL representative this week, and they will be having an in-person meeting soon. He said the district spoke to all faculty members about the importance of responding to HIB incidents right away, and also that the school district will be meeting with the town's many religious leaders in the weeks to come.

"We think we've done a good job but we will consider anything they have to offer," he said. "If we have one bias case where a person feels marginalized, that is one person too many."

Dressner, meanwhile, says the school board refuses to meet with him and his ex-wife, despite their repeated requests.