A December Bark survey revealed that 43 percent of students self-reported that they have witnessed or experienced anti-Semitism in their community. The same survey also concluded that 48 percent of students believe Marin schools have not appropriately communicated with parents and students about hate speech on their campuses.

Oct. 31

On the night of Halloween, after school hours, a Jewish star and male genitalia were spray-painted in blue paint next to one another on the wall of the Gaga pit at Bel Aire Elementary School. The graffiti also included indecipherable scribbles.

Nov. 1

A staff member discovered the graffiti at 7:30 a.m. and the school’s custodian was called in to paint over it.

RUSD Superintendent Nancy Lynch has played a large role in the district’s response to the graffiti. She instructed the custodian to remove the graffiti, as per district policy.

“The custodian went to remove it, because we don’t leave graffiti of any kind up. His attempt to cover it up didn’t really do a good job. It would not have been the standard that we have for that, and so there were additional people that saw it and then just wondered what else was under the covering,” Lynch said.

Despite the cover-up attempt, the anti-Semitic graffiti was still visible to students playing in the Gaga pit at lunch, and varying levels of understanding yielded widely different responses. The mother of two Bel Aire students, who wished to remain unnamed, spoke at an RUSD Board meeting about her children’s reactions to the graffiti. She explained that her children didn’t understand the anti-Semitic message behind the graffiti. Her third-grade daughter who attends Bel Aire went home and asked why someone would use such a bright blue color. She was confused, and thought maybe the person that drew the graffiti was just “sad about all the Jews that had died in the past.”

Her son, a fifth-grader at Bel Aire, also saw the graffiti at school. After being prompted about the incident by his mother, he said he didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. He didn’t feel impacted, but he wanted to know why everybody was talking about it.

Bel Aire administrators did not hold an assembly to speak to students about the graffiti or clear up the confusion, though many students saw it. Some felt impacted by it, and others simply didn’t understand what it meant. Parents were not notified of the incident via email or other means of communication from district administrators.

Town councilwoman Holli Thier found out about the incident from a ‘Marin Independent Journal’ reporter, and was not notified by the school.

“The minute I heard about it, I called the superintendent and I called the police to find out what was going on and what happened,” Thier said.

Nov. 5

At around 3 p.m., an email from Nancy Lynch, the RUSD Superintendent, was sent to all parents in the district detailing the incident from Oct. 31. The email also included an acknowledgment that the graffiti was seen by students at school the next day.

“We acknowledge the first attempt to clean up the graffiti did not meet our expectations and the graffiti remained somewhat visible throughout the rest of the school day, which was unacceptable. Understandably, this caused additional concerns amongst the community about what else the graffiti may have contained,” the email read. “To clarify, there were no words or clear message, only scribbles.”

The email was a step in the right direction, in the minds of some community members.

“I was happy that something went out to parents and to the school, letting everyone know what happened,” Thier said.

Nov. 13

Beginning at 6 p.m., the RUSD Board held a scheduled board meeting at Bel Aire. The agenda included an item labeled “Discussion Regarding Diversity and Inclusivity” to give community members a chance to give their opinions about the Oct. 31 graffiti incident and the district’s response. This was simply a discussion item and was not to be voted on. Board members addressed comments and discussed future action regarding district protocol for such incidents.

Roughly 50 community members attended the meeting, and about 15 spoke during public comment about the anti-Semitic incident.

Matt Blair, a parent of two high school students, was the first to speak. He read aloud the poem “First They Came” by Pastor Martin Niemoller, which was written after the end of the Holocaust and the Second World War. It reads as follows:

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

Alice Fredericks, a town councilwoman and long-time Tiburon resident, stressed the importance of learning from hate speech.

“We need to make this incident a catalyst instead of an excruciating reminder of history and the callousness of the present,” Fredericks said.

Thier spoke to the difficult nature of addressing such an incident as a school district.

“The incident is not about one response or the children that saw it. It’s about all of us,” Thier said. “How do we react and respond when one group is being offended, when one group is being targeted?”

Following the public forum, the board members decided among themselves to work towards creating new district protocol and curriculum that would spur conversations with students about uncomfortable topics such as anti-Semitism and other hate speech.

Lynch stands behind her community’s response to recent anti-Semitic incidents, citing parents’ involvement in the district as an indicator of their outspokenness.

“I think everybody has to speak for what’s true to them. If people want to come out and share their thoughts and ideas for it, they absolutely should have an opportunity to do that,” Lynch said. “We have a lot of opportunities for parents to engage in the work we do in our district.”

At the board meeting, many community members expressed that they wished they had been notified immediately following the incident and would have liked to see a police presence sooner afterward.

“I think that letting parents know and reporting it to the police and making sure that it’s appropriately documented is the right thing to do. That is what needed to happen and I think that if this were to happen again, it [would] be handled much differently,” Thier said.

Nov. 26

Lynch acknowledged that hate speech on campus is unavoidable, but that it must be addressed. Del Mar Middle School psychologists Dr. Allan Gold and Dr. David Kovar have assisted in addressing hate speech on campus and providing resources and a safe space for any students affected.

“You do hear students speak racial slurs or make comments to other students; we’re not immune to that. It’s addressed whenever we find out that’s happened, but I think just like any other school, we have to provide guidance, support, and discipline to students who are maybe not getting the clear message from their families,” Lynch said.

Lynch also addressed the possibility of implementing new security measures to prevent such an incident from happening in the future.

“In December I’m bringing the item to the board to expand the use of cameras for forensic purposes on our campuses for these situations … those are measures, I’m not necessarily suggesting we go there,” Lynch said.

Dec. 2

A parent of children in the RUSD school district, Aubrey Erez, worked with Thier to organize a march against anti-Semitism that met at Reed School in downtown Tiburon. The march was held on the first night of Hanukkah in a commemoration of Jewish culture and as a peaceful demonstration against anti-Semitism and hate speech in Tiburon.

“[The march] is to show that we are a community made up of many people, and we are going to support each other and stand together as one, regardless of race, religion or color,” Erez said.

Over 100 community members gathered with posters and marched from Reed School to the Main Street fountain. At the fountain, community members assembled around a large menorah as Thier and Erez each spoke about what the march means to them.

“There will be more instances [of anti-Semitism] in the future, but the march will show that our community is larger than what people assume,” Erez said. “People have more support than they think.”

Community member Haif Erez lit the menorah that he and his wife Aubrey purchased for the town of Tiburon last year as the group chanted traditional Hanukkah prayers. The demonstration gave Tiburon residents a chance to celebrate Hanukkah and their religion with their community and to demonstrate their intolerance for hate speech and anti-Semitism.