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CNN
15 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
In the battle between Harvard and the Trump administration, goalposts keep moving
When the president of Harvard University gave his charge to this year's graduating class, he spoke from experience. 'My hope for you, members of the class of 2025, is that you stay comfortable being uncomfortable,' Alan Garber said last week. Uncomfortable situations have hung over Garber for much of the year, as the Trump administration has targeted Harvard for special scrutiny – while also sowing doubt the school could ever satisfy its mounting demands. Since its initial criticism of Harvard as a place where antisemitism was condoned or ignored during last spring's pro-Palestinian protests, the government's list of complaints about the nation's oldest and wealthiest university has grown by the day. While some grievances – expressed in a mixture of open letters, court filings, social media posts, TV interviews and off-the-cuff remarks – have aligned with the school's own concerns, the university says others have been trivial and unsupported. Across the board, the demands have been cheered by conservative figures and organizations who see elite US institutions of higher learning as home to radical ideas and anti-Jewish bias and thus easy and deserving targets. The drumbeat began March 31, when Trump officials sent Harvard a letter advising they would review all roughly $9 billion of the Ivy League institution's contracts and grants: 'The Federal Government reserves the right to terminate for convenience any contracts it has with your institution at any time during the period of performance,' wrote General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum. In announcements since, the White House has threatened to wipe out nearly every grant commitment and contract to the school. Almost every new volley has been accompanied by a fresh accusation – from campus crime to Communism to calculus – though few have been tied directly to how the money at risk is used. 'This is, I think, part of the strategy they have been employing, which is a flood-the-zone strategy with a barrage of attacks and a sense of uncertainty about what's coming next or how one could even respond,' Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, told CNN. Moving the goalposts on Harvard began even before the federal spigot started to tighten. While the Trump administration opened its fusillade with claims Harvard allowed antisemitism to burgeon and broke civil rights law by promoting campus diversity, its initial list of demands in mid-April covered much more, including changes to the school's governance, tightened oversight of its foreign students and increased 'viewpoint diversity' in curriculum and hiring, with third-party auditing. The university, Garber responded, had been working for more than a year to address antisemitism concerns and would continue to 'broaden the intellectual and viewpoint diversity within our community.' But Harvard rebuffed the broad set of government conditions, prompting the Trump administration to announce a freeze of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts, then the university to sue April 21. 'All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear,' the school said in the federal complaint: 'Allow the Government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution's ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions.' Since then, the government has announced more funding and contracts would be taken away, with billions more under threat. 'What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these that don't even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems. Why cut off research funding?' Garber told NPR last week. The government's biggest body blow to Harvard came May 22, when the Department of Homeland Security announced it was revoking the university's certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, making it impossible for international students to continue their studies there. 'It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,' wrote Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Harvard responded the next day with a second lawsuit against the Trump administration. Then, a day before the parties were due to square off on that matter in court for the first time, President Donald Trump proposed his own remedy, one that appeared to have no basis in law or regulations: an arbitrary limit on what percentage of Harvard's student body should be international. 'I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15%,' Trump said Wednesday. International scholars account for 27% of Harvard's student body, the school has said in court filings. Even many seasoned attorneys say they're having difficulty trying to figure out the legal justification behind the White House's moves. 'It's not exactly clear to me. It seems like the Trump administration's position is, 'We're the executive branch we control these student visa programs … and if we want to revoke them, we can revoke them,'' said CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, a former assistant US attorney. During the first hearing over Harvard's foreign student access, a federal judge indefinitely blocked the government from enforcing its ban, saying the international program must remain 'status quo.' Still, the Trump administration's expansive moves to cut funding and deport international students at Harvard and beyond appear to be testing the limits of the 'unitary executive theory,' a legal framework cited by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Under its most extreme interpretation, the theory suggests the president, as chief executive, has virtually unlimited power to control the actions of executive branch agencies. That includes the Department of State, which issues student visas; Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which controls the deportation process; and the many agencies involved in doling out federal aid dollars. Garber believes the fight goes beyond the law. 'They see this as a message that if you don't comply with what we're demanding, these will be the consequences,' Garber told NPR. 'I don't know fully what the motivations are, but I do know that there are people who are fighting a cultural battle,' he said. 'I don't know if that is what is driving the administration. They don't like what's happened to campuses, and sometimes they don't like what we represent.' While the Trump administration has repeatedly cited fighting antisemitism as the basis for most of its moves against Harvard and other colleges, when speaking outside court, federal officials have acknowledged their methods aim to inflict maximum pain. 'We are going to go after them where it hurts them financially,' Leo Terrell, a civil rights lawyer who heads Trump's Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and even before Trump's second inauguration was called 'Harvard's worst nightmare,' told Fox News last week. 'There's numerous ways – I hope you can read between the lines – there's numerous ways to hurt them financially,' he said. That appears to be a key motivator of the government's revocation of Harvard's ability to host international students, 'effective immediately.' While Harvard has not said how much tuition money the 6,793 international students enrolled there this year paid, the university charges undergraduates $86,926 in tuition and fees, including room and board. International students are frequently in graduate programs that charge higher tuition, and not all of them live in on-campus housing, so determining the exact cost of the loss of Harvard's international students is difficult. Still, the publicly available figures suggest it could represent a loss to Harvard of hundreds of millions of dollars in the fall if the government is allowed to make good on its threat. When speaking about the funding freeze, the head of the Department of Education said federal dollars should be used to achieve Trump's goals. University research should not only be within the confines of the law but also 'in sync, I think, with the (Trump) administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish,' Secretary Linda McMahon told CNBC last week. 'The president is looking at this as, 'OK, how can we really make our point?'' McMahon said. 'And what are the things that Harvard and other universities are doing that we have to call attention to?' Although Garber has agreed in general terms to some White House demands – including renaming its diversity, equity and inclusion office – Harvard has won praise by being the only major US university to take on the White House in court. In contrast, Columbia University, whose graduate student Mahmoud Khalil became the first face of efforts to deport students linked to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, agreed to government demands including cracking down on campus protests and reviewing curriculum, all in an effort to get back $400 million in frozen federal funds. Not only did the administration not return that funding, it went on to formally find Columbia in violation of the Civil Rights Act, saying the university 'continually failed to protect Jewish students.' 'We saw two different approaches taken by the president of Columbia and the president of Harvard,' Pasquerella said. 'The president of Columbia acceded to the demands, and yet they're still under attack.' Given the Trump administration's focus on eradicating DEI programs, universities across the board expected to see federal grants scrutinized for any connection to such efforts, said Toby Smith, senior vice president for government relations and public policy for the Association of American Universities. But cuts have gone far beyond that. 'I think that's something that people didn't expect, that there would be no way to seek relief for things that, for the most part, are not focused on DEI,' he said. 'That's not the focus of the grant.' If Harvard thought addressing antisemitism and DEI would alleviate the government's concerns, Noem's announcement about the eviction of international students suggested the White House had much more on its mind. The Department of Homeland Security missive bullet-pointed a dozen grievances, including claims based on a letter from Republican members of Congress that research collaborations with Chinese universities were 'contributing to the military capabilities of a potential adversary.' An agency statement – with a title that began 'Secretary Noem Doubles Down and Escalates Action Against Harvard' – went further, categorizing Harvard as 'coordinating with Chinese Communist Party officials on training that undermined American national security.' Noem also singled out an increase in annual on-campus crime in 2023, citing police figures obtained by the student-run Harvard Crimson: The number of reported hate crimes doubled – from five to 10 – even as nearly half of all crime reported on campus was motor vehicle thefts, including scooters. And the Trump administration drilled down further on the university's curriculum – not in politics but math. 'Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics when it is supposedly so hard to get into this 'acclaimed university'? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?' McMahon wrote in an open letter to Harvard without specifying who allegedly was refused. McMahon appeared to be referring to a class called Math MA5, which was introduced last year to address math deficiencies among students whose education was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, a Harvard official told the Crimson. The course covers the same material as the university's existing introductory course, including 'fundamental ideas of calculus,' plus more classroom time and review, its description says. In an Oval Office riff last week, the president said Harvard was teaching students that 'two plus two equals four.' Although many conservatives have argued Math MA5 was developed due to 'lowering academic standards' to achieve diversity goals, Trump appeared to suggest international students are to blame. 'They're bragging about teaching them basic mathematics, where did these people come from? So, we have to look at the list,' said Trump. 'The list' is a reference to the president's social media demand that Harvard turn over the identities of its international students to the government. 'We want to know who those foreign students are … We want those names and countries,' Trump said on Truth Social shortly after midnight on a Sunday morning in late May. Asking for names and countries was 'an easy request they should be more than willing to provide,' a White House spokesperson told USA Today. Indeed, Harvard does it already – and has for decades. All international students in the US are listed in a government database called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS. Sponsoring schools must keep that database up-to-date with not only students' names and countries but also 'addresses, courses of study, enrollment, employment and compliance with the terms of the student (immigration) status,' according to the Department of Homeland Security's website. Although the Trump administration accused Harvard of failing to fully comply with its more extensive records request on international student records – including any 'dangerous or violent activity' and 'deprivation of rights of other classmates or university personnel' – the government has never claimed in court the university failed to provide the basic identification information required in SEVIS. In an email to administration officials filed as part of its lawsuit, Harvard said it did not collect some of the information the administration wanted because it was not legally required and it had never received a similar request in more than 70 years. The school reported three international students who were disciplined this year, two for 'inappropriate social behavior involving alcohol,' court records show. A final offer letter from Noem with steps Harvard could take – with a 72-hour deadline – to avoid losing SEVP status added even more demands, including footage of 'any protest activity involving a nonimmigrant student on a Harvard University campus,' even if it was nonviolent and no crime was committed. Trump implied the demands for information were based less on evaluating Harvard's compliance and more on giving the administration more fuel to deport students. 'We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine … how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,' Trump posted on Memorial Day on Truth Social. Harvard is encouraging international students not to leave the school out of fear that they could lose their visas while the court case winds on. 'You are integral to the fabric of our community, and we will keep fighting for your right to learn and thrive at Harvard,' the school's International Office wrote Thursday to its students. America is made stronger by its top-tier universities that produce world-class research and attract students from across the globe. Fareed says the Trump administration is attacking all of that — and thereby making America weaker. As government demands on Harvard snowball, Noem wrote in late May: 'Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.' Whether Harvard can meet all the government's demands – or is willing to do so – Garber knows his institution is being used as an example. 'They said it, and I have to believe it. And I've repeated it myself,' he told NPR. 'And that is how it's understood by the other leaders of other universities that I've spoken to: It is a warning.'
CNN
15 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
In the battle between Harvard and the Trump administration, goalposts keep moving
When the president of Harvard University gave his charge to this year's graduating class, he spoke from experience. 'My hope for you, members of the class of 2025, is that you stay comfortable being uncomfortable,' Alan Garber said last week. Uncomfortable situations have hung over Garber for much of the year, as the Trump administration has targeted Harvard for special scrutiny – while also sowing doubt the school could ever satisfy its mounting demands. Since its initial criticism of Harvard as a place where antisemitism was condoned or ignored during last spring's pro-Palestinian protests, the government's list of complaints about the nation's oldest and wealthiest university has grown by the day. While some grievances – expressed in a mixture of open letters, court filings, social media posts, TV interviews and off-the-cuff remarks – have aligned with the school's own concerns, the university says others have been trivial and unsupported. Across the board, the demands have been cheered by conservative figures and organizations who see elite US institutions of higher learning as home to radical ideas and anti-Jewish bias and thus easy and deserving targets. The drumbeat began March 31, when Trump officials sent Harvard a letter advising they would review all roughly $9 billion of the Ivy League institution's contracts and grants: 'The Federal Government reserves the right to terminate for convenience any contracts it has with your institution at any time during the period of performance,' wrote General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum. In announcements since, the White House has threatened to wipe out nearly every grant commitment and contract to the school. Almost every new volley has been accompanied by a fresh accusation – from campus crime to Communism to calculus – though few have been tied directly to how the money at risk is used. 'This is, I think, part of the strategy they have been employing, which is a flood-the-zone strategy with a barrage of attacks and a sense of uncertainty about what's coming next or how one could even respond,' Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, told CNN. Moving the goalposts on Harvard began even before the federal spigot started to tighten. While the Trump administration opened its fusillade with claims Harvard allowed antisemitism to burgeon and broke civil rights law by promoting campus diversity, its initial list of demands in mid-April covered much more, including changes to the school's governance, tightened oversight of its foreign students and increased 'viewpoint diversity' in curriculum and hiring, with third-party auditing. The university, Garber responded, had been working for more than a year to address antisemitism concerns and would continue to 'broaden the intellectual and viewpoint diversity within our community.' But Harvard rebuffed the broad set of government conditions, prompting the Trump administration to announce a freeze of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts, then the university to sue April 21. 'All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear,' the school said in the federal complaint: 'Allow the Government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution's ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions.' Since then, the government has announced more funding and contracts would be taken away, with billions more under threat. 'What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these that don't even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems. Why cut off research funding?' Garber told NPR last week. The government's biggest body blow to Harvard came May 22, when the Department of Homeland Security announced it was revoking the university's certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, making it impossible for international students to continue their studies there. 'It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,' wrote Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Harvard responded the next day with a second lawsuit against the Trump administration. Then, a day before the parties were due to square off on that matter in court for the first time, President Donald Trump proposed his own remedy, one that appeared to have no basis in law or regulations: an arbitrary limit on what percentage of Harvard's student body should be international. 'I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15%,' Trump said Wednesday. International scholars account for 27% of Harvard's student body, the school has said in court filings. Even many seasoned attorneys say they're having difficulty trying to figure out the legal justification behind the White House's moves. 'It's not exactly clear to me. It seems like the Trump administration's position is, 'We're the executive branch we control these student visa programs … and if we want to revoke them, we can revoke them,'' said CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, a former assistant US attorney. During the first hearing over Harvard's foreign student access, a federal judge indefinitely blocked the government from enforcing its ban, saying the international program must remain 'status quo.' Still, the Trump administration's expansive moves to cut funding and deport international students at Harvard and beyond appear to be testing the limits of the 'unitary executive theory,' a legal framework cited by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Under its most extreme interpretation, the theory suggests the president, as chief executive, has virtually unlimited power to control the actions of executive branch agencies. That includes the Department of State, which issues student visas; Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which controls the deportation process; and the many agencies involved in doling out federal aid dollars. Garber believes the fight goes beyond the law. 'They see this as a message that if you don't comply with what we're demanding, these will be the consequences,' Garber told NPR. 'I don't know fully what the motivations are, but I do know that there are people who are fighting a cultural battle,' he said. 'I don't know if that is what is driving the administration. They don't like what's happened to campuses, and sometimes they don't like what we represent.' While the Trump administration has repeatedly cited fighting antisemitism as the basis for most of its moves against Harvard and other colleges, when speaking outside court, federal officials have acknowledged their methods aim to inflict maximum pain. 'We are going to go after them where it hurts them financially,' Leo Terrell, a civil rights lawyer who heads Trump's Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and even before Trump's second inauguration was called 'Harvard's worst nightmare,' told Fox News last week. 'There's numerous ways – I hope you can read between the lines – there's numerous ways to hurt them financially,' he said. That appears to be a key motivator of the government's revocation of Harvard's ability to host international students, 'effective immediately.' While Harvard has not said how much tuition money the 6,793 international students enrolled there this year paid, the university charges undergraduates $86,926 in tuition and fees, including room and board. International students are frequently in graduate programs that charge higher tuition, and not all of them live in on-campus housing, so determining the exact cost of the loss of Harvard's international students is difficult. Still, the publicly available figures suggest it could represent a loss to Harvard of hundreds of millions of dollars in the fall if the government is allowed to make good on its threat. When speaking about the funding freeze, the head of the Department of Education said federal dollars should be used to achieve Trump's goals. University research should not only be within the confines of the law but also 'in sync, I think, with the (Trump) administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish,' Secretary Linda McMahon told CNBC last week. 'The president is looking at this as, 'OK, how can we really make our point?'' McMahon said. 'And what are the things that Harvard and other universities are doing that we have to call attention to?' Although Garber has agreed in general terms to some White House demands – including renaming its diversity, equity and inclusion office – Harvard has won praise by being the only major US university to take on the White House in court. In contrast, Columbia University, whose graduate student Mahmoud Khalil became the first face of efforts to deport students linked to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, agreed to government demands including cracking down on campus protests and reviewing curriculum, all in an effort to get back $400 million in frozen federal funds. Not only did the administration not return that funding, it went on to formally find Columbia in violation of the Civil Rights Act, saying the university 'continually failed to protect Jewish students.' 'We saw two different approaches taken by the president of Columbia and the president of Harvard,' Pasquerella said. 'The president of Columbia acceded to the demands, and yet they're still under attack.' Given the Trump administration's focus on eradicating DEI programs, universities across the board expected to see federal grants scrutinized for any connection to such efforts, said Toby Smith, senior vice president for government relations and public policy for the Association of American Universities. But cuts have gone far beyond that. 'I think that's something that people didn't expect, that there would be no way to seek relief for things that, for the most part, are not focused on DEI,' he said. 'That's not the focus of the grant.' If Harvard thought addressing antisemitism and DEI would alleviate the government's concerns, Noem's announcement about the eviction of international students suggested the White House had much more on its mind. The Department of Homeland Security missive bullet-pointed a dozen grievances, including claims based on a letter from Republican members of Congress that research collaborations with Chinese universities were 'contributing to the military capabilities of a potential adversary.' An agency statement – with a title that began 'Secretary Noem Doubles Down and Escalates Action Against Harvard' – went further, categorizing Harvard as 'coordinating with Chinese Communist Party officials on training that undermined American national security.' Noem also singled out an increase in annual on-campus crime in 2023, citing police figures obtained by the student-run Harvard Crimson: The number of reported hate crimes doubled – from five to 10 – even as nearly half of all crime reported on campus was motor vehicle thefts, including scooters. And the Trump administration drilled down further on the university's curriculum – not in politics but math. 'Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics when it is supposedly so hard to get into this 'acclaimed university'? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?' McMahon wrote in an open letter to Harvard without specifying who allegedly was refused. McMahon appeared to be referring to a class called Math MA5, which was introduced last year to address math deficiencies among students whose education was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, a Harvard official told the Crimson. The course covers the same material as the university's existing introductory course, including 'fundamental ideas of calculus,' plus more classroom time and review, its description says. In an Oval Office riff last week, the president said Harvard was teaching students that 'two plus two equals four.' Although many conservatives have argued Math MA5 was developed due to 'lowering academic standards' to achieve diversity goals, Trump appeared to suggest international students are to blame. 'They're bragging about teaching them basic mathematics, where did these people come from? So, we have to look at the list,' said Trump. 'The list' is a reference to the president's social media demand that Harvard turn over the identities of its international students to the government. 'We want to know who those foreign students are … We want those names and countries,' Trump said on Truth Social shortly after midnight on a Sunday morning in late May. Asking for names and countries was 'an easy request they should be more than willing to provide,' a White House spokesperson told USA Today. Indeed, Harvard does it already – and has for decades. All international students in the US are listed in a government database called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS. Sponsoring schools must keep that database up-to-date with not only students' names and countries but also 'addresses, courses of study, enrollment, employment and compliance with the terms of the student (immigration) status,' according to the Department of Homeland Security's website. Although the Trump administration accused Harvard of failing to fully comply with its more extensive records request on international student records – including any 'dangerous or violent activity' and 'deprivation of rights of other classmates or university personnel' – the government has never claimed in court the university failed to provide the basic identification information required in SEVIS. In an email to administration officials filed as part of its lawsuit, Harvard said it did not collect some of the information the administration wanted because it was not legally required and it had never received a similar request in more than 70 years. The school reported three international students who were disciplined this year, two for 'inappropriate social behavior involving alcohol,' court records show. A final offer letter from Noem with steps Harvard could take – with a 72-hour deadline – to avoid losing SEVP status added even more demands, including footage of 'any protest activity involving a nonimmigrant student on a Harvard University campus,' even if it was nonviolent and no crime was committed. Trump implied the demands for information were based less on evaluating Harvard's compliance and more on giving the administration more fuel to deport students. 'We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine … how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,' Trump posted on Memorial Day on Truth Social. Harvard is encouraging international students not to leave the school out of fear that they could lose their visas while the court case winds on. 'You are integral to the fabric of our community, and we will keep fighting for your right to learn and thrive at Harvard,' the school's International Office wrote Thursday to its students. America is made stronger by its top-tier universities that produce world-class research and attract students from across the globe. Fareed says the Trump administration is attacking all of that — and thereby making America weaker. As government demands on Harvard snowball, Noem wrote in late May: 'Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.' Whether Harvard can meet all the government's demands – or is willing to do so – Garber knows his institution is being used as an example. 'They said it, and I have to believe it. And I've repeated it myself,' he told NPR. 'And that is how it's understood by the other leaders of other universities that I've spoken to: It is a warning.'
Boston Globe
16 hours ago
- Boston Globe
In whistleblower trial, former R.I. Catholic school teacher claims principal, Diocese, covered up sexual solicitations
Advertisement Another secretly recorded video, which was later shared anonymously with WPRI-TV and the Providence Branch of the NAACP, showed then-principal Joseph Brennan using racist and anti-Jewish slurs. Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up Marsocci filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2018 against the school and Diocese, and is also suing former administrators for defamation and accusing them of interfering with his ability to get hired at other Catholic schools in Rhode Island. Over the last week and a half, a jury in Kent County Superior Court has heard testimony from Brennan and Marsocci. The trial continues Tuesday. Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, Rhode Island on May 25, 2022. (Matthew Healey for The Boston Globe) Matthew Healey for The Boston Globe Marsocci testified that he told Brennan and the chaplain in 2014 about finding the teacher's emails on the computer, which was also used by students. The teacher was allegedly responding to ads on Craiglist seeking sexual encounters with younger men, and in one instance sent a photo of himself with students. Advertisement Marsocci later created a website — registered under the name 'Harry Paratestes' — on which he accused Brennan, assistant principal David Flanagan, and president John A. Jackson of covering up the other teacher's actions. The 'Hawk Outsider' website included videos that Marsocci had secretly recorded with Brennan acknowledging that the teacher had a problem. Marsocci was fired in May 2017, after school officials and the Diocese discovered the website and told him to take it down, he said. He said he was defamed by letters that the school sent to the Bishop Hendricken community, pastors and Catholic school principals, that painted him as a disgruntled teacher trying to damage the school's reputation. The school also sought to assure the community that students were not in any danger. While the 'Hawk Outsider' website called the teacher a 'potential predator,' Marsocci testified he had no evidence of the teacher behaving inappropriately with the students. 'Leaving that material on the computer for a minor to see is inappropriate,' Marsocci testified. 'There may be some parents who may not want their kids to happen upon that stuff.' Marsocci said another teacher told him about finding pornographic material on the classroom computer in 2013. Then in 2014, Marsocci said, he found sexually explicit emails that appeared to be written by the teacher. He said he told the chaplain and Brennan. Marsocci said he used a hidden camera to record his conversations with Brennan and another school officials 'because of the history of events with the Catholic church.' 'After I saw two pretty significant coverups by [the administration] 10 years before, I did what I felt necessary to make a record so I would not be a part of a cover-up,' Marsocci testified. Advertisement Marsocci said he continued finding sexually explicit emails, which he said also could be viewed by any student. So, he took screenshots, told the chaplain, and began building a website to expose it. Brennan testified that Marsocci was terminated for being insubordinate and that the accused teacher did not put any students in danger. Brennan said he investigated by talking to the teacher, who denied writing the emails. 'He seemed almost hurt I would ask him that. He's a wonderful man,' Brennan said. 'I just felt as though he was sincere with me, and there was no way we could prove it was him.' Brennan said he told the teacher to lock down the computer. He claimed he didn't know that Marsocci continued finding more sexually explicit emails on the computer over the next three years, including solicitations for prostitution. 'He was always coming to talk to me. It may have been he was complaining to me about the decision [about teacher], and I thought the decision was good and fair,' Brennan testified. 'I didn't know he was still investigating. I might have thought he was upset that I didn't terminate or punish [the teacher].' Brennan and Flanagan found out about the Hawk Observer website, which was left open in the faculty room. Marsocci hadn't yet made it public, but they could see the homepage with their photos on it, and a video of Brennan in his office. 'It was a bombshell,' Brennan testified. 'It was saying there was a Hendricken scandal, a cover-up, and honestly, [since] 2014, I thought this issue was resolved.' Advertisement The Diocese was called in. Marsocci was told to take down the website. He refused and was fired. The police spoke with administrators at Hendricken and Marsocci, looked at his screenshots, and determined the issue was a civil matter. The Hawk Outsider website went live. At a faculty meeting in June 2017, Brennan said, 'This is war.' A letter went out from Bishop Hendricken in December assuring pastors and principals at Catholic schools that it categorically denied the allegations. 'We wanted to let the principals and pastors know that we have a safe school,' Brennan said. Marsocci testified that he learned that the Rev. Robert Marciano, a Hendricken alum who became the school's president, gave a homily in early 2018 calling him a rogue teacher 'When I heard about Father Marciano, I knew my career connected with the church was over,' Marsocci said. He now works in construction. The Hawk Outsider website now claims to be a collaboration with 'Hendricken Parents' and 'Hendricken Alumni,' though Marsocci testified that he doesn't know who they are. Both Brennan and Flanagan have filed counter-claims against Marsocci accusing him of making libelous and slanderous statements. Brennan is also accusing Marsocci of violating his rights by surreptitiously filming him in his office and giving 'selective false and fictitious information' to the media. In one video, Brennan used a racial slur and a slur against Jewish people; he testified that he abruptly resigned in 2018 after the video was anonymously shared with WPRI-TV and the Providence Branch of the NAACP. Brennan said that snippet appeared to come from a conversation he had with Marsocci. Advertisement Flanagan and Jackson are also no longer employed by the school. The only person whose job hasn't changed is the teacher who was allegedly sending the explicit emails. He remains at Bishop Hendricken. Amanda Milkovits can be reached at
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Molotov cocktail attack part of surge in antisemitic violence; 'community is terrified'
The morning after a man hurled Molotov cocktails at a crowd of Jewish Americans in Boulder, Colo., Rabbi Noah Farkas celebrated the first day of Shavuot in the usual way: He read the Torah about the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. But Farkas, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said what was supposed to be a holiday celebrating the establishment of law and order was marred by the weekend violence. 'The community is terrified,' Farkas said outside Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge. 'It's remarkable to me that those who want to assault us are coming up with ever new and novel ways to do harm to us and to try to kill us." Twelve people between the ages of 52 and 88 were burned in the Colorado attack. A man — identified by law enforcement as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, an Egyptian citizen who had overstayed his tourist visa — used a 'makeshift flamethrower' to attack demonstrators marching peacefully in a weekly event supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza. According to an FBI affidavit, the attacker yelled 'Free Palestine!' — the same cry uttered by the suspect in a May 21 incident in which two Israeli Embassy aides were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. The back-to-back attacks have unnerved many Jewish Americans — particularly as they come just a month after a man set fire to the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. A suspect later said the fire was a response to Shapiro's stance on Israel's war on Gaza. 'We are in a completely new era for antisemitic violence in the United States,' said Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino. 'We are now at a point of extraordinary national security concern with respect to protecting Jewish communities across the U.S. and worldwide.' Anti-Jewish hate crimes, Levin said, hit record levels nationally in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the last year that the FBI has available data, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 63% to a record 1,832 incidents, Levin said. Last year, religious hate crimes were up significantly in major U.S. cities, Levin said, with anti-Muslim hate crimes rising 18%, and anti-Jewish ones rising for the fourth consecutive year, up 12% to a new record. 'Over the last decade, we're seeing more mass casualty attacks, and they're becoming more frequent and more fatal," Levin said. 'It used to be that anti-Jewish hate crimes, unlike a lot of other hate crimes, were much more tied to property damage and intimidation. Now we're seeing just a slew of high-intensity types of attacks.' The attacks in the U.S. come as United Nations officials and aid groups warn that the situation in Gaza has become increasingly dire, with Palestinians in Gaza on the brink of famine as Israel continues its 19-month military offensive against Hamas militants. Two weeks ago, Israel agreed to pause a nearly three-month blockade and allow a 'basic quantity' of food into Gaza to avert a 'hunger crisis' and prevent mass starvation. On Sunday, Gaza health officials and witnesses said more than 30 people were reported killed and 170 wounded as Palestinians flocked to an aid distribution center in southern Gaza, hoping to obtain food. The circumstances were disputed. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds about 1,000 yards from an aid site run by a U.S.-backed foundation, but Israel's military denied its forces fired at civilians. Levin attributed the rise in violence in the U.S. to a number of factors, including the Israel-Hamas war and the "increasingly unregulated freewheeling online environment." Horrifying imagery coming out of the Middle East, Levin said, was amplified on social media by those who ascribed responsibility to anyone who believes Israel has a right to exist, or is Jewish, or wanted hostages to be released. 'What happens is angry and unstable people not only find a home for their aggression, but a honed amplification and direction to it that is polished by this cesspool of conspiracism and antisemitism," Levin said. In Los Angeles' Pico-Robertson neighborhood, the mood was subdued Monday as a smattering of Orthodox families made their way to services to observe Shavuot. Many kosher establishments were closed and armed guards flanked entrances to larger Jewish centers and temples. On Pico Boulevard, a 25-year-old Orthodox man carried a prayer shawl close to his chest as he headed to a service at a temple just before noon. He had slept just a few hours after staying up all night reading the Torah. Despite the news of the attack in Colorado, the man — who identified himself as Laser — carried an easy smile. "It's a joyous holiday," he said. The Colorado attack was horrifying, he said, but it was not anything new and paled in comparison with the feeling that descended on the Jewish community in Los Angeles and across the world after Oct. 7. "It's never good to see or read about those types of things," he said. "We just pray for the ultimate redemption, for peace here, peace abroad, peace around the world." At Tiferet Teman Synagogue, a man standing at the door repeatedly apologized to a Times reporter, saying that he would not discuss the event that happened in Colorado. "I'm not going to invite politics into the community," he said. "God bless you all." Others observing the holiday declined to have their photo taken and many of the businesses were closed. A quiet buzz pervaded Pico Boulevard as Orthodox members of the community made their way to services, many of them trying their best to avoid eye contact. A Persian Jewish man from Iran said he has always been hesitant about religious violence. The man, who declined to give his name, was on his way to service. "You always have to keep your eyes open," he said. "No matter where you are in the world." Noa Tishby, an Israeli-born author who lives in L.A. and is Israel's former special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization, said that many Jewish people were afraid to congregate. 'The Jewish community feels under siege,' she said. "People are removing their mezuzahs from their doorsteps. They're removing Jewish insignia from themselves, removing their Star of David or hiding it. They're afraid to go to Jewish events.' Tishby said that the Colorado attacker appeared to be motivated by antisemitism: the views and beliefs of the victims didn't matter. 'What if that particular woman that man tried to burn alive yesterday, what if she was a Bibi hater, would that appease him?' Tishby asked, using a nickname for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'The answer is no. He doesn't know what her political opinions are in America or in Israel. He just burned her because she was Jewish.' Antisemitism, Tishby argued, was a shape-shifting conspiracy theory that had evolved into anti-Zionism. 'What happened is that the word Zionist is now a code name for Jew,' she said. 'We have been warning for decades that anti-Zionism is the new face of antisemitism…. They're taking all the hate, everything that's wrong in the world right now, and they're pinning it on the Jewish state.' L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was quick to denounce the attack Sunday as 'an atrocious affront to the very fabric of our society and our beliefs here in Los Angeles.' In a statement, she said she would call an emergency meeting at City Hall addressing safety and security across the city immediately after Shavuot. 'LAPD is conducting extra patrols at houses of worship and community centers throughout LA. Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in this city,' she said. After speaking to Bass on Sunday, Farkas said that he planned to meet in person with the mayor on Wednesday after the Shavuot holiday to have a 'real, frank conversation' about antisemitism. "There is a cycle that we go through where our hearts are shattered and yet we have to keep enduring," Farkas said. "And it makes us call into question the commitment of our wider community and our government to the safety of the Jewish community.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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Molotov cocktail attack part of surge in antisemitic violence; ‘community is terrified'
The morning after a man hurled Molotov cocktails at a crowd of Jewish Americans in Boulder, Colo., Rabbi Noah Farkas celebrated the first day of Shavuot in the usual way: He read the Torah about the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. But Farkas, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said what was supposed to be a holiday celebrating the establishment of law and order was marred by the weekend violence. 'The community is terrified,' Farkas said outside Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge. 'It's remarkable to me that those who want to assault us are coming up with ever new and novel ways to do harm to us and to try to kill us.' Twelve people between the ages of 52 and 88 were burned in the Colorado attack. A man — identified by law enforcement as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, an Egyptian citizen who had overstayed his tourist visa — used a 'makeshift flamethrower' to attack demonstrators marching peacefully in a weekly event supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza. According to an FBI affidavit, the attacker yelled 'Free Palestine!' — the same cry uttered by the suspect in a May 21 incident in which two Israeli Embassy aides were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. The back-to-back attacks have unnerved many Jewish Americans — particularly as they come just a month after a man set fire to the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. A suspect later said the fire was a response to Shapiro's stance on Israel's war on Gaza. 'We are in a completely new era for antisemitic violence in the United States,' said Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino. 'We are now at a point of extraordinary national security concern with respect to protecting Jewish communities across the U.S. and worldwide.' Anti-Jewish hate crimes, Levin said, hit record levels nationally in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the last year that the FBI has available data, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 63% to a record 1,832 incidents, Levin said. Last year, religious hate crimes were up significantly in major U.S. cities, Levin said, with anti-Muslim hate crimes rising 18%, and anti-Jewish ones rising for the fourth consecutive year, up 12% to a new record. 'Over the last decade, we're seeing more mass casualties attacks and they're becoming more frequent and more fatal,' Levin said. 'It used to be that anti-Jewish hate crimes, unlike a lot of other hate crimes, were much more tied to property damage and intimidation. Now were seeing just a slew of high intensity types of attacks.' The attacks in the U.S. come as United Nations officials and aid groups warn that the situation in Gaza has become increasingly dire, with Palestinians in Gaza on the brink of famine as Israel continues its 19-month military offensive against Hamas militants. Two weeks ago, Israel agreed to pause a nearly three-month blockade and allow a 'basic quantity' of food into Gaza to avert a 'hunger crisis' and prevent mass starvation. On Sunday, Gaza health officials and witnesses said more than 30 people were reported killed and 170 wounded as Palestinians flocked to an aid distribution center in the southern Gaza, hoping to obtain food. The circumstances were disputed. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds about 1,000 yards from an aid site run by a U.S.-backed foundation, but Israel's military denied its forces fired at civilians. Levin attributed the rise in violence in the U.S. to a number of factors, including the Israel-Hamas war and the 'increasingly unregulated freewheeling online environment.' Horrifying imagery coming out of the Middle East, Levin said, was amplified on social media by those who ascribed responsibility to anyone who believes Israel has a right to exist, or is Jewish, or wanted hostages to be released. 'What happens is angry and unstable people not only find a home for their aggression, but a honed amplification and direction to it that is polished by this cesspool of conspiracism and antisemitism,' Levin said. In Los Angeles' Pico-Robertson neighborhood, the mood was subdued Monday as a smattering of Orthodox families made their way to services to observe Shavuot. Many kosher establishments were closed and armed guards flanked entrances to larger Jewish centers and temples. On Pico Boulevard, a 25-year-old Orthodox man carried a prayer shawl close to his chest as he headed to a service at a temple just before noon. He had slept just a few hours after staying up all night reading the Torah. Despite the news of the attack in Colorado, the man — who identified himself as Laser — carried an easy smile. 'It's a joyous holiday,' he said. The Colorado attack was horrifying, he said, but it was not anything new and paled in comparison with the feeling that descended on the Jewish community in Los Angeles and across the world after Oct. 7. 'It's never good to see or read about those types of things,' he said. 'We just pray for the ultimate redemption, for peace here, peace abroad, peace around the world.' At Tiferet Teman Synagogue, a man standing at the door repeatedly apologized to a Times reporter, saying that he would not discuss the event that happened in Colorado. 'I'm not going to invite politics into the community,' he said. 'God bless you all.' Others observing the holiday declined to have their photo taken and many of the businesses were closed. A quiet buzz pervaded Pico Boulevard as Orthodox members of the community made their way to services, many of them trying their best to avoid eye contact. A Persian Jewish man from Iran said he has always been hesitant about religious violence. The man, who declined to give his name, was on his way to service. 'You always have to keep your eyes open,' he said. 'No matter where you are in the world.' Noa Tishby, an Israeli-born author who lives in L.A. and is Israel's former special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization, said that many Jewish people were afraid to congregate. 'The Jewish community feels under siege,' she said. 'People are removing their mezuzahs from their doorsteps. They're removing Jewish insignia from themselves, removing their Star of David or hiding it. They're afraid to go to Jewish events.' Tishby said that the Colorado attacker appeared to be motivated by antisemitism: the views and beliefs of the victims didn't matter. 'What if that particular woman that man tried to burn alive yesterday, what if she was a Bibi hater, would that appease him?' Tishby asked, using a nickname for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'The answer is no. He doesn't know what her political opinions are in America or in Israel. He just burned her because she was Jewish.' Antisemitism, Tishby argued, was a shape-shifting conspiracy theory that had evolved into anti-Zionism. 'What happened is that the word Zionist is now a code name for Jew,' she said. 'We have been warning for decades that anti-Zionism is the new face of antisemitism…. They're taking all the hate, everything that's wrong in the world right now, and they're pinning it on the Jewish state.' L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was quick to denounce the attack Sunday as 'an atrocious affront to the very fabric of our society and our beliefs here in Los Angeles.' In a statement, she said she would call an emergency meeting at City Hall addressing safety and security across the city immediately after Shavuot. 'LAPD is conducting extra patrols at houses of worship and community centers throughout LA. Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in this city,' she said. After speaking to Bass on Sunday, Farkas said that he planned to meet in person with the mayor on Wednesday after the Shavuot holiday to have a 'real, frank conversation' about antisemitism. 'There is a cycle that we go through where our hearts are shattered and yet we have to keep enduring,' Farkas said. 'And it makes us call into question the commitment of our wider community and our government to the safety of the Jewish community.' The Associated Press contributed to this report.
