Philly’s K-12 Schools

Antisemitic incidents in U.S. public schools, including vandalism and assault, increased 135 percent in 2023.

Key Findings

• There are unparalleled levels of antisemitism and harassment of Jewish students and teachers in Philadelphia’s K-12 schools post October 7: This has prompted two TItle VI complaints to be filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
  
  
• Canary Mission has identified antisemitic teachers: The teachers’ names were redacted in the above complaints.
  
  
• Systemic Use of Social Media to Promote Antisemitism: Educators and administrators in the Philly school district have used their social media platforms to disseminate antisemitic content and propagate hatred towards Israel. This activity is in violation of district policy.
  
  
• Sanctioned Antisemitic Curricula and Events: The district has allowed the promotion of antisemitic content through sanctioned school events, “teach-ins” and class assignments.
  
  
• Active Alignment with Anti-Israel Activist Groups: Philly educators have aligned themselves with anti-Israel activist groups, such as the Racial Justice Organizing Committee and Philadelphia Educators for Palestine. These groups actively push an anti-Israel agenda in schools, including the organization of events and the distribution of materials that promote antisemitism and glorify violence.
  
  
• Retaliation Against Jewish Parents and Students: Jewish parents and students who have raised concerns about antisemitism in Philly’s schools have faced retaliation and public denigration by teachers and administrators. This has created a culture of fear and reluctance to report incidents, further perpetuating a hostile environment.
  
  
• Refusal to Take Action: Despite numerous complaints, the district has failed to take adequate action to address these issues, resulting in Jewish students withdrawing from schools and Jewish teachers retiring early due to the hostile environment.
  
  
• Facilitation of Antisemitism by High-Ranking Administrators: Senior officials in the district have fostered a culture of antisemitism through public social media posts and by supporting antisemitic rhetoric and events.

First Complaint

In April 2024, following months of concerned parents, teachers and students alerting the SDP that their children faced repeated acts of antisemitism and bullying at school. On behalf of the School District of Philadelphia Jewish Family Association, the Deborah Project filed a complaint with the OCR “based on the hostile environment for Jewish students and teachers that has been building across the district for the past six months.”

The association claimed that since October 7, "...the District has stood idly by while its teachers and administrators have attacked Israel, Jewish people, and ‘Zionists,’ both in the classroom and from their public social media."

The complaint said that, “Confronted with repeated complaints about antisemitic harassment by certain teachers and administrators, the SDP either did nothing or, in one instance, removed a Jewish student from her class, ostensibly to protect her, but with the effect of encouraging the teacher to continue indoctrinating students and disrupting the educational experience of the student who was removed.”

Second Complaint

In July 2024, a second supplemental complaint was filed with OCR by the ADL highlighting cases from schools across the district, which the complaint describes as “a portrait of systemic harassment against Jewish students.”

The second complaint alleged [p.1-2]:

“Over the past nine months, the SDP has knowingly allowed its K-12 campuses to become viciously hostile environments for Jewish students...

"the environment has become so hostile that some Jewish students are dropping out of the school district entirely, while Jewish teachers are retiring early.”

Failed Mediation

The OCR complaint and investigation are the results of failed mediation with the SDP, due to the district’s unwillingness to agree to a number of resolution points which the SDP Jewish Family Association felt were minimally required.

As of September 2024, two complaints alleging pervasive antisemitism in schools were pending against the Philly school district.

SDP Teachers Use Classrooms to Promote Antisemitic Hatred

The second complaint argued [p.2] that, “Certain teachers have used class time (and their publicly accessible social media accounts, in violation of Title VI obligations and relevant SDP policies) to propagandize to students that the Hamas massacre on October 7 was ‘military armed resistance’ and that people in Europe converted to Judaism because they wanted to stay in power…"

“They have done so in order to indoctrinate students with highly inflammatory rhetoric, tropes, and false information about Israelis and Jews,” the complaint continued [p.11]

“These teachers did not act in a vacuum; they have been following the lead of high-ranking SDP administrators, including Assistant Superintendent Jamina Clay and Head of Social Studies Curriculum Ismael Jimenez.”

Even though this is against SDP’s Policy 316 (“Staff Use of Social Media and Electronic Communications”), none of these teachers have been disciplined or corrected.

Canary Mission Identifies Teachers

While the complaint was redacted to hide the identity of the teachers, Canary Mission has identified “Teacher A” as Keziah Ridgeway, “Teacher B” as Hannah Gann and “Teacher C” as Norman Shaw MacQueen.

Keziah Ridgeway

In February 2024, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that SDP social studies teacher Keziah Ridgeway gave her students a class assignment called, “Examine a modern-day group of indigenous or oppressed people’s use of art as an act of resistance and connect it to enslaved Black people’s use of spirituals.”

Two students created a video, titled “Oppression Art Podcast,” which drew [00:00:15] “parallels between the experiences of enslaved African Americans and the ongoing situation in Palestine and Israel.”

Ridgeway gave these students an “A” and chose their video for “entry into the school’s Black History Month assemblies.”

After Jewish parents expressed outrage over the video’s anti-Israel content, district officials ordered the video’s immediate removal.

On October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, Ridgeway shared [slide 31] on her Instagram Story highlights a statement from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) titled, “THE ROOT OF VIOLENCE IS OPPRESSION” that justified Hamas’ October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel.

The JVP statement referred [slide 3] to Hamas terrorists as “Palestinian fighters” and claimed [slide 4] “Israeli apartheid and occupation - and the United States complicity in that oppression - are the source of all this violence.”

In September 2024, the National Post reported that Ridgeway threatened the parents of Jewish students, according to a legal complaint lodged by the Deborah Project, a public interest law firm, on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

In an August 31, 2024 post, Ridgeway posted [p. 7] a graphic that read, “Ain’t no fun when the 🐇 got the 🤫,” referring to a gun.

In a September 3, 2024 post, Ridgeway wrote [p. 8], “Black owned 🔫shops in or near Philly? Asking for a friend.”

The complaint also took issue with Ridgeway naming previously anonymous SDP Jewish Family Association leaders on social media. In one post, Ridgeway wrote (p.6): “Part 1. I asked y’all nicely to leave me alone. I asked y’all nicely to keep my name out y’all mouth. Now I’m taking my gloves off…”

At the beginning of September 2024, Ridgeway was reportedly “reassigned offsite” while on investigation into her conduct is taking place.

Hannah Gann

SDP history teacher Hannah Gann expressed support for Hamas terrorists in multiple 2024 Instagram posts.

One of Gann’s 2024 Instagram posts featured a graphic with an inverted red triangle (which has become a symbol of support for Hamas) with text that read: “you can’t support / palestinian liberation / without supporting / palestinian resistance.”

(“Resistance” is used as a euphemism for violence and terrorism.)

The statement continued: “reject normalization / support the resistance.” The post featured an image of men with keffiyehs covering their faces.

Another one of Gann’s 2024 Instagram posts featured a pro-Hamas graphic titled: “DECOLONIZATION / IS A FORCE OF NATURE.” The graphic showed a hand emerging from underground while holding a weapon in a raised first, alluding to Hamas terror tunnels. The graphic also showed paragliders descending from the air, alluding to the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.

Norman Shaw MacQueen

On July 24, 2024, SDP teacher Norman Shaw MacQueen posted on Instagram a graphic that read, “Zionism is racism. Zionism is settler colonialism. Zionism is Islamophobia. Zionism is genocidal violence…”

On April 17, 2024, MacQueen wrote on Instagram: “…The settler state occupying the land of Palestine [Israel] will eventually fall. #freepalestine🇵🇸…”

MacQueen also expressed hatred of Israel in 2024 on his Instagram Stories, including a post that said, “These Zionists are no different from the swarms of white supremacist spectators cheering on the public lynchings of over 3,000 Black people.”

A second 2024 Instagram Story featured a slide with a video from the antisemitic AJ Plus (Al Jazeera) channel showing a woman accusing Israel of stealing Palestinian organs.

Accusations against Israel stealing or harvesting organs have been revived over the years, echoing old antisemitic blood libels against Jews.

A third 2024 Instagram Story featured a slide that said, “I cannot wait until the day that we see the white supremacist, colonizing, genocidal state of Israel fall. Our world will be one step closer to a beautiful place. #fromtherivertothesea🇵🇸.”

MacQueen also promoted on social media a February 23, 2024 Philadelphia Citywide High School Walkout In Solidarity with Palestine,” an event billed as spreading “awareness of the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine.”

Andrew Saltz

On October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, SDP teacher Andrew Saltz defended Hamas’ terrorism, posting on X: “...the whole things boils down to this: What do you want them to do? What does legitimate and effective resistance look like under these conditions?”

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SDP Teachers Isolate Jewish Students

The second complaint argued that SDP teachers have approved or sponsored a series of anti-Semitic events, including “walkouts” that isolate Jewish students and disrupt their educational experience, as well as faculty lecture series and “Teach-Ins” where “Zionists” are called “exterminators.”

On October 16, 2023, former SDP teacher Dana Carter, promoted on Facebook an anti-Israel protest that encouraged “all high school students” in the greater Philadelphia area to “rise up” and “walk out of their classrooms in support of Palestine.”

On February 23, 2024, the anti-Israel organization Philly Palestine Coalition organized the “Philadelphia Citywide High School Walkout In Solidarity with Palestine,” an event whose stated purpose was to "spread awareness of the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine.”

According to the complaint [p.27], Kimberly Byrd, the assistant principal of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) sent a note “to all students via the school’s Google Classroom platform to encourage them to participate, assuring them, ‘All students are allowed to participate without any penalty,’ and ending the note with ‘Enjoy and be safe!’”

Teachers Hannah Gann and Norman Shaw MacQueen (see above) both promoted the February 23rd walk-out on their public social media accounts.

According to the complaint, “when SDP parents contacted administrators regarding the walkout, the district failed to respond.”

SDP’s Board Policy 204 regarding attendance does not stipulate that a student’s attendance at a protest during school hours would constitute an “excused/lawful absence.”

In addition, the complaint details many antisemitic incidents perpetrated by teachers. For example, in December 2023 a teacher at Bache Martin Elementary School showed [p.8] a seventh-grade class a video from a social media “influencer” titled, “How Israel is Making Palestinians Homeless.” She also posted on the class’s Google Classroom an Al Jazeera article claiming that Israelis are killing Palestinian journalists. This was reported to the principal who was defensive and critical. The video and article remained on Google Classroom for more than 48 hours.

Several months later in the same class, the topic of a Jewish boy’s bar mitzvah celebration came up. The celebration was scheduled for April 20. The teacher asked [p.8] the boy, “Do you know whose birthday that is? That’s interesting. April 20 is Adolf Hitler’s birthday.”

At another Philly school, the Baldi Middle School (see complaint, p.10), “a teacher handed out an assignment requiring sixth-grade students to write the name of each country on a map. At the bottom of the page was a list of countries for students to match with their locations on the map. The teacher, however, crossed out Israel and replaced it with Palestine.”

SDP Administrators Facilitate Antisemitism

Director of the SDP’s Social Studies curriculum, Ismael Jimenez, was explicitly named in the second complaint [p.11] for posting “a steady stream of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content” on his social media account.

The complaint [p. 24] argued, “This is no private account; Mr. Jimenez publicly identifies himself as “@Teacherishx”and as the “Director of Social Studies Curriculum at the School District of Philadelphia.”

According to the complaint [p.24], “Mr. Jimenez routinely shares with the public and the SDP community quotes and tropes from notorious anti-Semites; castigates Israel as a 'terrorist state'; and actively encourages the hateful posts of SDP teachers…by ‘liking,’ sharing, and amplifying their posts…”

In November 2023, Jamina Clay, an assistant superintendent for the SDP, resigned from her role as a Montgomery County school board member after she declared, in a since-deleted social media post, that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were a “terrorist organization” carrying out genocide against Palestinians.

Yet, the SDP took no action and retained Clay as assistant superintendent, where she oversees 10 schools in the district.

SDP Aligns with Anti-Israel Activist Groups

Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks against Israel, SDP issued guidelines for teachers on how to discuss the history of the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

In November 2023, SDP offered teachers a professional development course titled, “Decolonizing the Curriculum: Brief History of Palestine and the Creation of Israel: Contextualizing the Current Conflict and Genocide.”

The course description claimed that Israel was carrying out the “colonization of Palestine” and that Israel’s war against Hamas was a “genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.” A summary on the SDP portal said teachers would be “better equipped to have conversations and facilitate lessons with their students” about Israel.

After local news sites publicized the course, SDP removed it from the portal.

SDP continued to come under pressure from activist groups to teach anti-Israel material in K-12 classrooms, including groups representing teachers and parents. Two such groups were the Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC), led by SDP Social Studies teacher MacQueen, and the Philadelphia Educators for Palestine (PEFP), led by SDP high school teacher Ridgeway.

SDP Teachers Retaliate Against Parents Complaining of Antisemitism

The second complaint revealed [p.3] that “a rampant culture of retaliation and fear has taken hold in the SDP, such that many Jewish parents, students, and teachers were reluctant to share, even confidentially, their stories of discrimination with Complainants out of concerns that they would be targeted for retribution.”

For example [p.2], “...one SDP Principal publicly called a complaining Jewish parent the problem at a school-wide meeting, while another SDP teacher cruelly took to his public “X” (f/k/a Twitter) account to ‘dox’ a Jewish parent who allegedly filed an anonymous complaint with this office.”

The complaint also stated the SDP Board meetings had been overtaken by several SDP teachers who have waged an openly hostile campaign against “Zionists,” whom they also label “white supremacists” in the SDP community.

According to an article in the Jewish New Syndicate (JNS), SDP teachers and members of Philly Educators for Palestine “monopolized virtually every speaker slot during the May 30 and June 6 SDP board hearings. They accused Philadelphia’s Jewish teachers, parents and students and the SDP Jewish Family Association of being ‘outside agitators’ from the ‘right-wing.’ They handed out Marxist propaganda celebrating Ebrahim Raisi, the ‘Butcher of Iran,’ at their rally preceding the board meeting. They demanded that the Board acquiesce in their defiance of rules, procedure and order.”

The article continued: “All of this antisemitic hatred is not only on display at SDP board meetings while the Board remains silent throughout. The people espousing these lying rants want their hatred to become School District policy. They want to carve this hate into the curriculum and thus engrave it on the minds of Philadelphia’s children.”

The Racial Justice Organizing Committee

RJOC was originally formed in 2016 as a subcommittee within The Caucus of Working Educators, which is a part of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), the Philadelphia teachers’ union that represents more than 13,000 employees in the Philadelphia public school system.

The RJOC is comprised of a group of activists and teachers whose goals include pushing an anti-Israel narrative in Philadelphia public schools. Since October 7, it has had an even more radical anti-Israel agenda.

On November 8, 2023, RJOC posted a solidarity statement “on the violence many countries and peoples are experiencing as a result of colonization and current settler colonialist practices.” The statement continued, “As educators committed to racial justice and collective liberation we stand with the people of Palestine…and all other lands impacted by colonial violence around the world.”

The second complaint noted [p.26], “Since October 7, SDP teachers and administrators have also used their influence and power, as well as SDP resources and facilities, to promote, support, and organize events.”

In late 2023 and throughout 2024, RJOC organized “teach-ins” to promote their anti-Israel curriculum to “fellow teachers, schools, and unions around the country.”

On January 13, 2024, RJOC members Ridgeway, Gann and MacQueen organized an “Educators for Palestine Teach In” for K-12 teachers with the help of the anti-Israel organization the Philly Palestine Coalition and the W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction, “a political education program for aspiring revolutionaries and movement leaders.”

Ismael Jimenez, SDP director of social studies curriculum, is a member of the program’s leadership team.

The teach-in was held on a Saturday, thereby excluding Jews who observe the Sabbath.

Gann later said that this teach-in was a response to the SDP pulling the “Decolonizing the Curriculum” professional development course.

The teach-in provided SDP teachers with resources for use in SDP classrooms that promote violence, antisemitism and hatred of Israel. Included in these resources were materials from the pro-terror Palestine Youth Movement (PYM) and the Teach for Palestine padlet.

Teach for Palestine also includes curricula and lesson plans from pro-terror and anti-Israel programs Teaching While Muslim and the Zinn Education Project.

The padlet has a category called “Resistance,” which links to the PLO’s “fundamental principles,” including the “right of return” (a method of destroying the Jewish character of Israel by flooding the state with millions of Palestinians). Resources in this category also promote the idea of armed conflict and glorify Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists Gassan Kanafani, Leila Khaled, Khalida Jarrar and Marwan Barghouti.

RJOC provides “Educator Lesson Plans” for teachers, listing as a resource Teach Palestine, another pro-terror and anti-Israel teaching resource sponsored by the anti-Israel Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA).

On January 20, 2024, RJOC posted photos from the teach-in that included “sticky note” messages on a gallery wall indicating the group’s “focus/goal.” One note said, “Speak up for immigrant students against tightening border control as a condition of aid for Israel.”

Another said, “Equipping our students with knowledge, information so they can take action.” A third said, “agitating within schools to get more support for political education about Palestine/working to protect more vulnerable teachers from backlash.”

A photo from the teach-in showed a board titled, “Isn’t Hamas responsible for most of the human rights abuses in Gaza? (not letting aid in, human rights, etc.)” which had notes saying: “No-apartheid is” and “No-but also Hamas wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the Israeli occupation.”

In August 2024, RJOC posted a “Dissolution Statement” saying that its “core members” had reached the “difficult decision to dissolve…in order to return to its origins as a grassroots organization” but “remain committed to our mission of pushing racial justice into our school district and our city…”

Philadelphia Educators for Palestine (PEFP)

Philadelphia Educators for Palestine (PEFP), bills itself as a “collective of educators, parents, and stakeholders in the School District of Philadelphia who support a free Palestine.”

In May 2024, PEFP issued a list of “6 Demands for the School District of Philadelphia” which called on the district “to unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide waged on the Palestinian people” and “to release a ceasefire resolution [with regard to Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists].”

PEFP is affiliated with anti-Israel organizations including the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), JVP Philly and the Philly Palestine Coalition.

On August 31, 2024, PEFP participated in “A Scholasticide Teach-In & Fundraiser” titled: “Back to School: What About Gaza?” The event was organized by Philly Healthcare Workers for Palestine and featured “Philly Educators for Palestine speaking about the connections between under-resourced Philly schools and the PA-state funding of genocide in Palestine.”

Eliana Atienza, an organizer with the pro-terror group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was slated to speak alongside Gann and anti-Israel agitator Susan Abulhawa.

At the event, Gann said [00:00:51] to a group of masked attendees: “I come to you as a member of Philly Educators for Palestine. We are an offshoot of the Racial Justice Organizing Committee…We were created to push back against the school district…We are the reason that there is an office of diversity, equity and inclusion in our district…”

Gann also said [00:02:27] that her experience as a teacher in a juvenile detention center helped her see the need for abolition and “also understood the way that so many of the techniques, technologies and tools that our police use are tested in occupied Palestine.”

Gann continued [00:06:45]: “If we just divested from Israeli war bonds we could fund all these after school programs and extracurriculars.”

At another teach-in on September 7, 2024, Gann introduced [00:00:01] herself as a member of “Philly Educators for Palestine…A grassroots group of educators, students, their families, sponsored by RJOC and born out of a teach-in that we had last January when the school district censored a PD [professional development] about this genocide…”

Gann said [00:00:21]: “We believe that as educators a fundamental duty we have is to care about children…”

Gann also said [00:00:47]: “By standing with Palestine we also stand against white supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, and state violence wherever it rears its head.”

Philadelphia Parents for Palestine

According to the second complaint, PEFP was renamed School District of Philadelphia Parents for Palestine and later amended to Philadelphia Parents for Palestine (PP4P).

The group’s Instagram bio sums up its anti-Israel agenda, reading, “US education is a pillar of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba just like US spending. We support the alternative: Teaching Palestine #droptheadlfromschools”

The PP4P website lists Jethro Heiko as its founder. Heiko testified at the school board meeting on May 30, 2024 and claimed that the district’s failure to act to protect teachers and students amounted to a “Don’t say Palestine” policy, similar to “Don’t say gay” laws in other states.’” He asked, “Does the district want to be like Ron DiSantis’s Florida?”

In conjunction with the school board meeting on May 30, 2024, PEFP organized an anti-Israel rally outside SDP offices to “Call on the SDP to draft a Ceasefire Resolution and to protect its teachers and students.”

PP4P is affiliated with Families for Ceasefire Philly, which ran a virtual workshop on September 16, 2024 titled, “Talking to Kids About Palestine.” The workshop was designed to explain “tricky concepts in kids language” like “occupation” which they explained as, “The people in charge of Israel sent their army to a place that wasn’t theirs, saying “This is ours now!”

Antisemitic SDP Educators