Brutal Anti-Semitism Claimed in NY School District -- the Fact That Local KKK Leader Used to Live in Town Doesn't Help

Swastikas seemed to cover the school landscape like so many autumn leaves.

The Jewish students said the hate symbols were drawn on walls, desks, lockers, textbooks, computer screens, and a playground slide, the New York Times reported.

The Nazi emblem allegedly was even drawn on a female student’s face.

(Image source: WCBS-TV)

(Image source: WCBS-TV)

Someone defaced a picture of President Obama on the wall of an 8th-grade social studies class by plastering a swastika on his forehead...but even after the teacher was informed, the picture remained up for another month, students told the Times.

Some Jewish students in the Pine Bush Central School District in New York State say they hear anti-Semitic epithets and jokes about the Holocaust, get coins thrown at them, and are ordered to grab money thrown into garbage cans — not to mention the physical beatings, the Times reported.

The school bus rides in the town that used to be home to a Ku Klux Klan chapter president are no better, as students say they hear chants of “white power” and see Nazi salutes, the Times added.

So the five students and their families sued. And now New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has jumped into the fray, directing state police and the Division of Human Rights to investigate, CNN reported.

"The reports of rampant anti-Semitic harassment and physical assaults at Pine Bush schools, if true, are deeply disturbing," Cuomo said in a statement to the state education commissioner.

"Here in New York State, we have zero tolerance for bigotry or hate based on anyone's religious or ethnic origin."

But Pine Bush superintendent Joan Carbone told WCBS-TV that bullying and religious discrimination isn't tolerated and that any hate graffiti is taken down immediately. In fact, WCBS reported that she welcomes the lawsuit to prove that the district is innocent.

(Image source: WCBS-TV)

In addition, WCBS interviewed some Jewish teachers, as well as Jewish residents who put their children through the school district, and said they haven't experienced the reported anti-semitism.

The students' lawyer Ilann M. Maazel tells of "out of control anti-Semitism in the school district. The school failed at every level. This is one of the worst bullying cases I've seen."

Here's a report WCBS from :

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