A Newsweek “My Turn” column alleging antisemitism in Westport — and charging the school district with a lack of response — has turned a national spotlight on the town.
Andrew Goldberg begins:
I didn’t know what hurt more: The antisemitism directed at our seventh-grade son or our public school administration’s attempts to silence us about what happened to him.
Both seared like a brand.
Goldberg — identified in a bio note as “an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer and director” — says that his son was taunted in 6th grade.
It escalated, Goldberg says, in 7th grade, and progressed to “targeted antisemitism.”
A friend invited him to sign up for “Camp Auschwitz,” with “great showers,” Goldberg writes. The same boy then began saying “We must exterminate the Jews” — a chant he heard watching “South Park” with Goldberg’s son.
Goldberg says the school responded with an “interrogation” of his son, and a safety plan that included sitting at another lunch table. He did not think the school was addressing antisemitism, or using it as a teachable moment for students and faculty.
Goldberg continues, “Word spread in our town. In its retelling, we were villains.”
He says that the bullying of his son continued. Friends dropped away. Feeling out of options, Goldberg and his wife enrolled their son in a private Jewish school.
Goldberg hired an education attorney, who asked the Westport Public Schools to help offset some of the tuition of the new school, and answer questions about training and policies to deal with what had happened to Goldberg’s son.
Their answers, he says, were “far too little, much too late.”
Goldberg and his wife felt the confidentiality clause in a settlement agreement was too prohibitive. They refused to sign,
In the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel, Goldberg writes, “Now, more than ever, speaking out about antisemitism is needed. Remaining silent was simply something we could not do.
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“06880” asked superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice for a comment. He says:
“The Westport Public Schools categorically rejects antisemitism and has no tolerance for antisemitism or any other form of hate. We address each issue and report head-on as they arise. Our response is done in a manner designed to help students feel safe and welcome in our schools.
“It is deeply saddening to know that our community members, specifically members of our Jewish community, have concerns that we do not take these matters seriously, particularly at this point in time. Although our hope is that the words below convey our commitment to no tolerance for any form of hate, we know that it is the actions that we take, proactively and responsively, that matter most.
“Across our schools, the district provides student programming and staff training from reputable institutions such as Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other organizations to help foster a school climate in which students feel a sense of safety and belonging.
“It is understandable that community members will have serious concerns when they hear stories that paint a very different picture. In full disclosure, this is a challenge because we have a duty and commitment to honor student privacy rights. However, we can assure the community we are absolutely vigilant in addressing discrimination, harassment, and other forms of hate-based conduct.
“When reports are made with us about student interactions, in school or outside of school hours, including allegations of bias or hate-based discriminatory conduct, our schools immediately respond with our Identity-Based Incident’ protocol, established to implement the Board of Education Hate-Based Conduct’ policy (#0525).
“The response is centered on the following steps: (1) thoroughly investigate and ensure student safety, (2) address (i.e. consequences for substantiated acts, learning experiences), (3) restore relationships.
“Our response to these concerns always includes prioritizing the safety of students first, which usually means creating a safety plan, while incorporating parent feedback, for the students involved as we investigate.
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice.
“We then conduct a thorough investigation and, depending on our findings, address substantiated findings in a variety of ways. This includes disciplinary consequences, longer-term safety measures, interventions to address the school climate, training for staff, and learning opportunities for students. When all parties are ready, we create and facilitate opportunities for the students involved to restore relationships within the school community.
“While our response to concerns of hate-based conduct is critical, a vitally important aspect of our program includes implementing proactive measures for students that foster a school climate in which students feel safe and welcome.
“To that end, we have provided programs to our students to help them understand the impact of their words and actions on others. Some of these programs include the Second Step SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) curriculum (e.g. empathy and kindness lessons, and perspective taking), ADL ‘identity-based’ anti-bullying lessons, the Responsive Classroom model, the Ruler program, heritage month celebrations, using our 6-12 advisory programs (e.g., ‘Connections’) to lead discussions on these topics.
“Staff professional development programs addressing this need have included: ADL scenario-based training (i.e. responding to bias/hate-based incidents), training on microaggressions/subtle acts of exclusion, and school-based DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) committee book clubs. In addition, given our commitment to this work, the district has begun to explore the pathway for a ‘No Place for Hate’ designation by the ADL.
“As always, we invite community members to share any concerns about their experiences in our schools. We are committed to maintaining a school climate that is safe and welcoming to all, and we recognize that there is always more work to be done.
“We look forward to partnering with the community in confronting these difficult issues.”
Click here to read the full Newsweek column by Andrew Goldberg.
As a local resident, graduate of Staples, and a Jewish American, I am deeply saddened.
After 8th grade I moved from Trumbull to Westport. In both towns I had Jewish and Non-Jewish friends. Growing up in the 80’s I heard one anti-semitic utterance in fourth grade. Religion was a non-issue. I went to a lot of first communions, and a lot of gentile kids attended so man Bar/bat Mitzvahs, they too knew the prayers by heart.
I went to Austin, TX for college. I hadn’t been in Texas for 48 hours before someone offered to “jew me down” and another asked if the Chai I wore on my neck chain was a giraffe. In those days I could laugh it off.
It seems that when it comes to antisemitisim things are getting worse and not better. I just don’t related to the current times, as I learned to appreciate difference, not create contention around it.
Have my neighbors always been cursing my Judaism behind my back?
I don’t think so.
I think we live in an age where hate has become digitally enabled, socially acceptable and slickly packaged.
I hope for better times. My best to the Goldberg family and I hope their wish for a teachable moment in the schools is realized in the near term.
I hear great things about Mr. Scarice, and I’m sure there are some legal issues at play here, but he kind of belongs up on a debate stage with that generic non-response. The situation Mr. Goldberg describes is horrific and specific enough to deserve much better answers — and if we can’t get them publicly, I sure hope he got them privately.
Tommy, well said. And I am very sorry the Goldberg family—especially the son—has had to experience this.
Many years ago I taught at Coleytown Elementary school as the music teacher. One of the demands the principal made of any music teacher was that they would provide music that would be part of his presentation and discussion with 5 graders, maybe 4th graders, (not sure), about the Holocaust. There would be speakers who were survivors or relatives of survivors. It was always a poignant and powerful experience. I can’t remember the various elements of the presentations, but I felt it was a very important topic to share with the children. I wonder if this kind of program would be useful during this troubling time.The power in it was that it was so personal, the children were in the room with people who had experienced the unspeakable. And that they contributed to the program in their singing, a meaningful song. All participants were moved.
Was the kid who taunted-repeatedly – spoken to directly?His parents brought in?
On the looong official speech I didn’t see these steps. And if it went on and on: can you kick the antisemitic kid out? Or a school official whose job it was to address this situation AND MAKE IT STOP. And just love the non disclosure clause after the situations was so toxic the Jewish kud had to leave our school system.
How do you think this student will be psychologically damaged? And his respect for our great school system that allowed this if him to continue and HE had to leave and not the Jr. Nazi?
I am so saddened by this; mortified by what this child and his family endured. I applaud Mr. Goldberg for telling us his son’s story, painful as it is. What can we learn from this? Bigotry, racism and hate are not inherent human behaviors; they are learned. Do we dare ask: Who are the teachers of such behavior?
Well, I hate to have to state this specifically, but it has become “more acceptable” to say these things out loud and in public, due to our society accepting this kind of thing more and more! Kids are not born to hate, they are taught this from social media, their own family’s actions and statements and other older people around them. If the parents don’t explain to the kids that it is WRONG to make fun of someone for being different, whether it is the color of their skin, religious beliefs or anything else, then how will they know they shouldn’t tease or belittle or bully or say or do anything that is antisemitism or racial slurs or because someone is gay, etc. We are supposed to be one of the most accepting towns, states in the country!
We need to stand up and speak out or the Holocaust can happen again! To those who don’t believe it ever happened, you are wrong, it did and it could easily happen again to the Jews or other people, as a group! Thank you to the Goldberg family for making this difficult decision to SPEAK UP!
Now it is time for Westport Public Schools to do the same, without naming any minors, they can be more specific, and state whether they suspended the “bully”, spoken to the family, given the student some more accurate history and morality lessons in kindness and explained to him that this was not acceptable behavior on any level!
Not sure, Ms. Berkowitz, that such speech has become MORE acceptable…way back, some fifty years ago, I was at a meeting about the expansion of the Longshore Marina; I rose to speak against expansion and a Compo Parkway man, who’s name I forget but who’s son still lives there, yelled out, “Sit down, Katz. Your kind are always dominating our meetings.”.
Must be a much worse experience for a kid in school, and I feel deeply for young Goldberg and am so sorry.
I am absolutely shocked that the Goldberg situation was handled so poorly by the school system that the parents had to remove their child from the school system! Shame on the Superintendent for letting this get out of hand to the point whereby the student had to be put in a private school!
Is it Ok for a former president to say “ its only locker room talk” when he degrades woman. Is this where our youth learn it’s ok to be hurtful to others. Everyone seems to blame our school administrators for allowing this incident of antisemitism. I sincerely doubt they didn’t take this very seriously. If the parents elected to send their son to a private school, that’s “ on them”. When I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s it was not uncommon for bullies to ridicule your nationality or the way you combed your hair. God forgive you had any German in you!. Somehow we all got thru it and lived our lives. Hope this happens for this young man. Avoiding antisemitism or any other form of discrimination will not make it go away.
Hate is a learned response. Education is the answer. if the parents of these students taught hate, then it is the responsibility of the schools to educate. Show 1939 footage of Jews walking into gas chambers.
If Mr. Ready or Koehler, Assistant Principal of Long Lots were around, the aggressors would be crapping in their pants, and everyone who went to schools when these two were administrators know EXACTLY what I mean!
As a 20+ year resident of Westport, I am stunned, saddened and embarrassed by this news. I hold our town in very high esteem. We must work hard and be a leading community of tolerance and respect for all peoples. I pray we will be. My best wishes go to the Goldberg family.
I feel overall Mr Scarice has done a good job for Westport schools. He failed here. His generic response protects Westport legally, but would it have been too difficult to admit that Westport didn’t handle the Goldberg situation as best as it could? When a student feels bullied to the point of having to leave the school, the system failed. The blame doesn’t fall entirely on Westport. Clearly the children and their parents responsible for the tainting are mostly to blame. But would it have been too difficult for Mr Scarice to actually apologize to the Goldberg family publicly for the less than optimal result? Very disappointing.
Mark, One can do a great job, but one huge mistake can cost you your job! Ask the Penn President who’s out of a job now!!
Children are born without hate. Unfortunately they learn HATE at home. Maybe we need to educate some of the parents in this town. The kids who are bullies have to learn it somewhere and just addressing the middle school bullies will not address the root of the problem. Sad situation.
It should be added here, I think, that, had such hate ridden epithets been hurled at a black student, the parents of the epithet spewing kid have been summoned immediately, the kid would have been expelled and, perhaps, been charged with racially motivated hate speech. Further, the superintendent would have had a lot more to say publicly and would have been lauded for so doing.
This is really a horrible response from Mr. Scarice.
I wanted to believe this story was not true as I couldn’t imagine our town and people living in it would be accepting of this kind of hate. But clearly based on this it was and the offenders seemed to have received no consequences. Just confirms what we already knew – antisemitism is not treated the same way as other forms of hate and unfortunately Scarice is no different than the buffoons we just saw testify before congress.
Same response as Harvard instructing Chabad to put away the Menorah at night because it may be vandalized…
I would have liked to hear Mr. Scarice more clearly state that the situation could have been handled more effectively. It’s great we have an “Identity Based Incident Response” protocol, but wouldn’t it be reasonable to review the protocol in light of this event? This incident points to potential gaps in the protocol and/or lack of student awareness and comfort around escalating bullying. We need an honest assessment of how this happened in order to constructively move forward.
I’d like to reach out to those who originally befriended the Goldberg child and their parents. A life based on love is a blessing. Please look within and cleanse yourself of hatred and bullying – you and your children will be better people, and your souls will be purer. Make amends with the Goldberg family. Forgive yourselves. Great miracles happen this time of the year. God bless you all.
Where was the principal during all this? It seems to me they should have handled it. Doesn’t every school have a plan for handling bullying? It should , bullying is not new.
Do these children learn the basic history of the Holocaust? No mention of learning history seems to be involved in any of these conversations. Children are not born to hate, but they are born with no knowledge. Put some into their heads and teach them what happened. Here’s a starting syllabus that should be required for all 7th graders in this hateful environment. If people thinks it’s too tough, tough. They need the facts ASAP: 2 short books: NIGHT by Elie Wiesel and SURVIVAL AT AUSCHWITZ by Primo Levi. Films: Schlinder’s List, The Pianist, The Woman in Gold; Europa, Europa; Night and Fog. START THERE. START SOMEWHERE.
Scarice must be sacked. Cowardice must not be rewarded. And the entire BOE must resign. This is disgraceful and has brought shame on our Town.
I am so disappointed on the way Superintendent Scairce handled the response of the Newsweek article. This antisemitic behavior is taught by the parents. Schools should address this by showing footage and the history of the holocaust in 1939 when countries turned their back. I would have liked the students and parents of the children accused sit in the front row… as well as the student body watches holocaust films. The parents & students need an education.