Parents upset after antisemitic incidents occurred at Cobb County schools
Parents and community members are outraged. In less than one week, two antisemitic incidents happened in Cobb County schools.
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Outrage over hate is growing, and calls for change are growing just as strong.
Last week, someone drew a Swatiska in a locker room at Dickerson Middle School and earlier this week at Wheeler High School.
Mindy Harrison, a member of Cobb Parents Against Antisemitism and Shield says students in an advanced placement (AP) class saw a hateful slide that a teacher used in a PowerPoint presentation while defining ethnic cleansing.
'It showed an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldier sweeping up little bodies over a map that you could tell said Palestine and his broom said ethnic cleansing,' Harrison explained. 'There are a lot of allies that are not Jewish that don't want to see this behavior and this type of platform abused.'
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The district sent Channel 2 Action News the following statement about the incident at Dickerson Middle School that says in part:
'Once administration has identified who is responsible, consequences for this unacceptable, hateful behavior will be as severe as policy and the law allows.'
The following statement was sent about the incident at Wheeler High School, that says in part:
'While ethnic cleansing is a standard in the class, the graphic used to teach the definition was wildly inappropriate and completely wrong. The graphic has been removed from the lesson and should not have been used.'
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Harrison says the slide is still accessible to parents and students online.
'Put some guardrails up on their learning platform, CTLS, so teachers can't upload this type of thing that would be helpful,' Harrison said.
District officials told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell they are trying to determine who, how, and where the PowerPoint came from. They also told Newell the hateful graffiti was removed promptly from the middle school.
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