Teens accused of vandalizing Mercer Island Middle School enter court-led diversion program
The two teenagers accused of vandalizing a middle school on Mercer Island in January will enter a court-let diversion program rather than face hate crime charges. The two 16-year-olds wrote antisemitic and racist messages on Islander Middle School on January 1 and were caught by Mercer Island Police in mid-January.
'And I think for a lot of folks it felt like a punch in the gut,' Maxima Patashnik with the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle said.
The King County Prosecutors Office told KIRO 7 that based on the evidence of the case, they felt the diversion program would help these teenagers learn from their mistakes.
'The point of what we are doing here is to try to get these 16-year-olds to realize how hurtful the hateful actions were,' Casey McNerthney with KCPAO said.
McNerthney says they do not divert teenagers who have committed violent crimes, crimes involving bodily harm or crimes where a weapon was used to threaten people to diversion programs. King County's court diversion program has been around since 1978. According to King County, 192 cases were completed which is estimated at an 80% success rate. To go deeper into the numbers, 131 cases involved male offenders and 61 with female offenders.
'It is not something that is experimental. You know, court diversion has been around for years,' McNerthney said.
The KCPAO says they talked with Mercer Island Police, School District, as well as Jewish leaders within King County about their decision not to prosecute for now. Those within the Jewish community like Patashnik say while they understand the move by prosecutors, it still stings some.
'A diversion program doesn't feel good for folks who see hate crimes when they feel a hate crime,' Patashnik said.
But Patashnik hopes these teens truly learn by having those conversations with leaders and others within the Jewish community about the ramifications of their actions back in January.
'Accountability is really important and if this option is available to them and if the justice system does create opportunities for education,' Patashnik said. 'And that is going to be really critical. And if that doesn't happen, then there should be other measures of accountability,' she continued.
Prosecutors say if the two teenagers do not complete the diversion program, they will bring the case back into court.
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Lurie said that when police approached the building to arrest those blocking the entrance, they 'ran and kind of scattered.' The protesters' faces were covered, he said, making it impossible to identify them via recordings. But some at UCLA said the changes have been dramatic — for the better. Sharon Nazarian, founder of the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at UCLA, noted a peaceful UCLA Hillel vigil and walk through campus to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack would have been 'unfathomable the previous academic year.' 'That,' she said, 'is a sea change for me.' A few USC students praised university leadership for protecting Jewish students. Ben Sheyman, 22, grew up in San Francisco, but his life as a Jew was partly shaped by his immigrant parents' experience in their home countries: Ukraine and Belarus — places where Jews were persecuted. When his family came to the U.S., it was supposed to be different. 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USC said in a statement that it 'continues to publicly and unequivocally denounce antisemitism in all its forms and has taken strong actions to protect all of our students ... from illegal discrimination of any kind.' It also touted the 'enhanced security protocols' and the launch of new mandatory seminars 'devoted specifically to free expression and civic discourse.' For some at USC, though, the fractures in their lives — the loss of friendships, the alienation from peers or professors — linger. People like Wallack. Her time at USC after the Oct. 7 attack was discombobulating. She left her sorority because she felt it did not voice sufficient support for Israel, and moved home. 'I don't really feel like I found my people at USC as a result of Oct. 7,' she said. Sitting in the shade at the USC Village in early May, Wallack touched her Star of David necklace and explained that she would not attend graduation ceremonies. Instead, Wallack departed for Israel. A business fellowship awaited.
