Lawsuit filed against Bay Area school district for alleged antisemitism on campuses

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- Accusations of antisemitism has led to a lawsuit against a local school district. The suit, filed on behalf of several Jewish students in Redwood City and San Mateo, says the Sequoia Unified High School District failed to protect them from "a hostile environment" on campus.

Sam Kasle said his daughter, a student at Woodside High School, was harassed for being Jewish.

"My daughter came home from a world history class over a couple of times crying and crying," said Kasle. "The environment I grew up in is much more antisemitic than when I grew up in the 80s. That's not the path that America should be on."

Kasle said he filed complaints about with school staff and administrators. But, nothing was ever done.

His attorneys have now filed a lawsuit against Sequoia Union High School District.

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The lawsuit is on behalf of half a dozen Jewish students at Woodside High School in Redwood City and Menlo-Atherton high school in San Mateo.

The suit claims the district failed to address "an alarming surge of antisemitism within its schools."

"A number of incidents have occurred at these schools in the course of a year -- including swastikas drawn on the campus, including harassment by peers, harassment by teachers. What is really frustrating here is the administrators and the board of trustees have turned a blind eye to discrimination against kids, against their schools," said attorney Ryan Weinstein.

Weinstein says the incidents have gotten worse since the October 7 attacks when Hamas invaded Israel.

"They were targeted to such a degree that advisers and teachers advised them to hide outward identify signs of their Jewish faith, so in other words, to hide necklaces with Stars of David because they knew they would be targeted, and they knew they would do very little to protect them," said Weinstein.

MORE: Los Altos middle school investigates swastikas found drawn on lockers, 1 belonging to Jewish student

According to Weinstein, students have been subjected to racial slurs on campus. And in one case...

"A presentation that was given by a reported ethnic studies teacher as the Jews controlling dominant narratives and using cartoon imagery of a puppeteer," said Weinstein.

ABC7 News reached out to the Superintendent at Sequoia Union School District for comment but have not heard back.

Parent Sam Kasle hopes the lawsuit will make a difference.

"We hope the process and procedures will be looked at carefully, so it won't happen to other families," said Kasle.