Over 70 parents protested to the members of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District board and its superintendent John Bowles Wednesday night over an alleged anti-semitic incident at Manhattan Beach Middle School and how the officials handled it.
“You have shown what cowards you are,” said Manhattan Beach Market co-owner Heather Kim. “It’s appalling what you did, even more so than what that little girl said.”
Four Jewish girls reported that they were harassed by an 11-year-old female student, who verbally attacked them with strongly antisemitic language.
According to Rabbi Joshua Kalev of Congregation Tikvat Jacob, the Islamic girl allegedly made several violent statements to the Jewish girls, including “All Israelis and Jews should be killed” and “Revenge is beautiful.”
Kalev criticized the MBMS officials and school board for taking no action against the student and classifying it as “political” speech rather than “hate.”
“The message to everyone is that there are no consequences for hate filled behavior,” said Kalev. “That our students don’t have a safe place to learn and grow… and the message for our Jewish students, is that once again they are left vulnerable and alone.”
Of the 20 speakers, all spoke out against the way the district handled the incident, and none came to the defense of the girl who the Jewish girls say attacked them verbally.
Frances Marshall, wearing a “Make American Great Hat” hat and jacket in support of former president Donald Trump, called what happened at MBMS “good vs. evil” and told the school board members they “will be replaced,” if they don’t do right. “We will have you removed,” she said. “We are putting you on notice.”
Michelle Wachtfogel talked about growing up as the child of relatives who were killed in the Holocaust and how it was urgent for the district to teach the “difference between right and wrong,” to students. The incident, which has drawn an uproar among parents and the local synagogues, “wasn’t an agenda item tonight,” she said. “Will it be?”
The school board, citing the Brown Act, said it couldn’t respond publicly, and that it would only listen. It did read a prepared statement at the beginning of the session, apologizing for how it initially handled the complaint.
