In a 76-page opinion today, United States District Judge Kenneth M. Karas denied Pine Bush Central School District’s motion for summary judgment. The School District sought dismissal of a case brought by five Jewish students represented by ECBAWM, who were the victims of severe and pervasive anti-Semitic harassment and bullying at school. The bullying included anti-Semitic slurs, Holocaust jokes, physical assaults, coin throwing, white power chants, Hitler salutes, and anti-Semitic graffiti on textbooks, lockers, walls, desks, and a classroom poster of President Obama. In denying the District’s attempt to dismiss the case, Judge Karas ruled that a jury could reasonably find that the children had “suffered severe and discriminatory harassment, that the district had actual knowledge of the harassment, and that the district was deliberately indifferent to the harassment” and that the district “failed to take reasonable steps to combat anti-Semitic harassment.” The Plaintiffs are represented by Ilann M. Maazel, O. Andrew F. Wilson, and Zoe Salzman of ECBAWM, as well as Public Justice, P.C., and Michael Meth, Esq.

“Judge Denies Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Anti-Semitic Bullying in a New York School District,” New York Times