The Anti-Defamation League said on Wednesday that it reached a settlement with the Boulder Valley School District, which educates about 28,000 students at 56 schools, in a federal civil rights complaint that it filed in June.
After students bullied and harassed a Jewish student repeatedly, the school and district failed to respond appropriately, according to the complaint, which the ADL filed with the U.S. Department of Education and the Denver civil rights office.
Under the agreement, the district will clarify that its discrimination and harassment policies include “basis of national origin and shared ancestry” and will post a page on its website with resources on antisemitism. It will also post the initial part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred but not the contemporary examples, per the agreement. (JNS sought comment from the district.)
The district also commits to hire an executive director and compliance officer focused on Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, and to make its online reporting system for bias incidents clearer. The Title VI officials will publish and publicize annual reports for the next three years on the district’s response to bias complaints, and the district will provide Jew-hatred training to all students, teachers and staff and will form a superintendent advisory group on Jew-hatred, per the agreement.
The superintendent also agreed to meet with the Jewish student, who was subjected to the antisemitic bullying, and his parents or to send them a letter, whichever the student prefers.
“Jewish students and all students are safer and better protected at Boulder Valley School District because of the bravery of one family that stepped forward to say ‘enough,’” stated James Pasch, vice president of litigation at the ADL.
“The pain of the last several years of targeted antisemitic harassment will now give way to meaningful, district-wide changes designed to help ensure that no other Jewish student feels unsafe or unwelcome because of their ethnic or religious identity,” he stated. “By establishing a strong framework for preventing antisemitic harassment, strengthening reporting and oversight and holding BVSD accountable for its commitments, this agreement lays the groundwork for safer, more inclusive schools.”
