Thousands of Cobb County parents want school board to condemn anti-Semitic graffiti

Thousands of parents are calling on the Cobb County School Board to condemn anti-Semitic graffiti found at two high schools.

Parents and students, Jewish or not, say they believe the administration failed to do its job when they described the incident as “students misbehaving” and “hateful graffiti.”

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“If you choose not to condemn it , then you condone it,” Rabbi Larry Sernovitz told Channel 2′s Michael Seiden.

Rabbi Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth said that he is working hard to help heal the wounds ripped open by the incidents at Lassiter and Pope High Schools.

He says that despite public outrage, the school board has yet to condemn the acts.

On Tuesday, the school board released its agenda for Thursday night’s meeting and there are no plans so far to publicly address the swastikas and “Heil Hitler” messages spray painted across bathroom walls.

“When you choose‚ deliberately, to not include something that clearly is plaguing the community at this moment that people are thinking about, what you are basically telling the community is that I’m not really interested in listening to your issues,” the rabbi said.

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Lauren Menis, the co-founder of the Atlanta Initiative Against Anti-Semitism, launched an online petition that has quickly gained over 3,000 signatures. VIEW PETITION HERE.

“This is obviously an issue that has really hit our community hard, and when I say community, I just don’t mean Cobb County,” Menis said.

In 2020, The Anti-Defamation League recorded 2,024 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide, which is the third highest amount since 1979.

District spokespeople have released a statement to Channel 2 Action News that reads, in part,

“The District continues to condemn the recent disturbing social media trend involving hate speech, anti-Semitic references, and the abuse of school property...Our principals have and are engaging with students, teachers, parents, and community members about how to prevent the harmful and illegal behavior from happening.”

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The board meets on Thursday and dozens, if not hundreds of parents, plan on attending the meeting in the hopes the board will address their concerns.

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