Earlier this week, swastikas were discovered inscribed on students’ desks at three MCPS schools: Silver Creek Middle School, Tilden Middle School, and Thomas S. Wootton High School.
“We find this behavior unacceptable and against the core values we embrace at Silver Creek,” the school released in a letter home to parents about the incident. Silver Creek and Tilden are both part of the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” program.
In a letter to the school community, Tilden Principal Sapna Hopkins announced that the school will have an assembly on Thursday with Holocaust survivor Josie Traum, a child in Belgium during World War II. This assembly is an attempt to educate students on the dangers of hate speech. Even before the most recent incidents, Winston Churchill High School staged a walkout on Monday to protest the recent rise in antisemitism.
The MCPS Board of Education announced in their statement they plan to collaborate with advocates like the Jewish Community Relations Council to educate students on antisemitism.
“It makes me feel uncomfortable, and frankly, a little bit like I don’t belong, which is saying something considering I’ve lived in the area my whole life and always felt at home,” explained a Jewish student at B-CC.
As soon as staff at each school saw the drawings, building services immediately removed the offensive images. The involved students were disciplined in accordance with the MCPS Student Code of Conduct, according to a statement from the MCPS Board of Education.