Educate against the hate
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Earlier this year, the playground at the Setauket Elementary School in the Three Village Central School District on Long Island was vandalized by anti-Semitic graffiti. The police were contacted, the graffiti was quickly cleaned up and parents were informed that the school district “does not condone the use or promotion of hateful messages or references.”
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo directed the state’s Hate Crimes Task Force to support the Suffolk County Police Department Hate Crimes Unit in its investigation.
Was that enough?
Schools are not only targets of hate crimes, but also one of the sources. In the case of the anti-Semitic hate crime, it appears two students in the district may have been responsible. This is not uncommon — according to the FBI’s 2018 statistics, juveniles committed one in seven of the reported hate crimes.