Trump's DOE investigates Seattle-area school district for 'enabling rampant antisemitism'

The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched an investigation into a Washington state school district on allegations of ignoring and enabling rampant antisemitism. The Lake Washington School District, which is located near Seattle, has been accused of fostering a hostile environment for its Jewish students since the 2023 Hamas terror attacks. Jewish students have allegedly been the target of slurs, threats, and physical violence. The school district has reportedly refused to intervene.

The investigation follows a federal Title VI complaint filed by StandWithUS Saidoff Legal against the school district. According to the legal organization, the lawsuit was filed after the LWSD failed to address the issue after receiving multiple incident reports, which allowed a "hostile environment to persist." Educators have also been accused of teaching biased content surrounding the Israel-Hamas war in their classrooms, according to the complaint.

The complaint details numerous anti-Jewish incidents that have occurred within the LWSD, including threats of violence and physical assaults against Jewish students, antisemitic slurs such as "kike" and "dirty Jews" spewed at Jewish students, disruptive anti-Israel protests during school hours, the use of antisemitic classroom curricula approved by school leadership, and disregarding the fear of Jewish students in the district.

"It is no surprise that a hostile environment was able to proliferate within the Lake Washington School District when looking at its leaders' lack of remedial action in the face of clearly reported antisemitic harassment and discrimination," said StandWithUS Saidoff Legal Senior Counsel Jenna Statfeld Harris in a press release. "This is a dereliction of the district's duty to protect Jewish students and ensure the entire school community has equal access to a safe learning environment. We are confident that the Department of Education will come to the same conclusion and remedy the situation."

Ari Hoffman, The Post Millennial's West Coast editor, has been documenting anti-Israel incidents that have occurred within the school district over the past few years. The school district admitted in an April 2024 email that "hate speech" and "discrimination" towards its Jewish students occurred during an anti-Israel walkout event. However, no action appeared to have been taken.

Recently, the Trump administration announced that blatant antisemitism would no longer be tolerated at US public institutions. Several actions have since been taken by the administration, such as threatening to pull federal funding for universities that have allowed antisemitism to run rampant on campus and the apprehensions of noncitizen students who were organizers for the notorious 2024 anti-Israel Gaza camp at Columbia University. That student is now in ICE custody pending deportation.

 

The Post Millennial reached out to the Lake Washington School District for comment.