FREEHOLD – At a recent Freehold Regional High School Board of Education meeting, large numbers of parents and students filled the seats, most of them waiting to hear how the board was going to address the developing situation regarding antisemitic comments made by a few students at Manalapan High School.
The incidents revolve around a Snapchat conversation among four students, who are believed to be freshman, at Manalapan High School. The conversation got screenshotted and posted to both Snapchat and Instagram. The students talked about dressing up as Hitler and kids from the Holocaust on Halloween while spewing more hateful rhetoric throughout the messages.
“i da just realized the only people we actually don’t lol is jews,” one message read.
“kill every last one,” said a message in response.
One of the other messages said that they fill their vapes with the gas from the Holocaust. When the conversations were posted by the students, they were captioned with “the conversations we have bro” and other ways to laugh about it.
“We are aware of antisemitic posts that were made outside of school by some of our students in our school district. We are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and taking immediate, comprehensive, and decisive action. Antisemitism and hate of any kind have no place in our schools,” said Freehold Regional High School District’s Superintendent Dr. Nicole Hazel.
Hazel reiterated her position on the situation at the Board of Education meeting.
“I want to be clear. Antisemitism, and hate, have no place in the Freehold Regional High School District. We have taken action in accordance with our board policies and regulations, the New Jersey anti-bullying bill of rights act, the New Jersey law against discrimination, and we have worked in accordance with law enforcement pursuant to our memorandum of agreement. While student confidentiality laws prevent us from sharing specific disciplinary details, we are committed to ensuring accountability and making sure that every member of our school community feels safe and supported.”
Hazel also stated that in addition to consequences, education is needed to effectively combat hate and antisemitism in schools. She also stated that the hateful posts were not made during schooltime and rather occurred after school.
During the public comment section, several citizens took the podium to voice their concerns and share what they believe should be done next. Everyone who took the podium believed that some sort of consequences were necessary, but also that restorative actions and education were necessary as well.
Most acknowledged that these students learned their hate at home and that social media became a microphone for their rhetoric. A few of the citizens also shared their frustrations over the board of education’s refusal to share the details of the students’ punishment, and the fact that they found out about the incident through Facebook rather than the board themselves.
With all of those in mind, the word “accountability” was circled back to several times as the citizens wanted to know what the board was going to do about the hate speech. While not providing specifics solutions or stating what they want to see, most of the citizens just wanted to know that something will be done.
Another important thing of note that occurred during the meeting was the changing of the district’s calendar. Hazel announced that Wednesday, November 5 will be an early dismissal for the whole district as NJGPA and NJSLA will have field testing on that day. March 17-20 will be early dismissal days along with June 18 as well.
