Fairfield College Preparatory School in Fairfield, Conn., is investigating antisemitic social media posts allegedly made by a group of students targeting members of the New Canaan High School boys ice hockey team, school officials said.
In a statement released on April 4, Fairfield Prep Principal Timothy Dee and President Christian Cashman said the “ongoing investigation indicates this recent incident involved a small number of individuals within our student body who acted anonymously on social media.”
“This is not who we are, what we stand for or what we teach,” they wrote. “So we ask ourselves, if our dedication to formation is true, as we know it to be, how then can acts of such painful intolerance occur in Prep’s name? It happens because of our shared human frailty, especially among our young people who fail even as we seek to form them in our Ignatian way.”
The posts surfaced around the time of the teams’ March 23 matchup in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I final, in which New Canaan defeated Fairfield Prep 3–1 to win its first state title in 54 years, according to CT Insider.
“Win or lose, we booze, and at least we’re not Jews. Hail Fairfield,” read one of the images that appeared on Instagram, The New York Times reported.
About 10 social media posts were posted in all, including one showing “a hockey player wearing a yarmulke and an Israel jersey with a Star of David emoji over his face,” and a caption that read “Netanyahu Cannan,” with the song “Hava Nagila” playing in the background. One post included a video depicting what appeared to be a simulation of a sexual assault, according to the Times.
“We will never tolerate, condone or accept hate speech of any kind, and we are taking appropriate steps to support the students and families affected,” Bryan Luizzi, superintendent of New Canaan Public Schools, and NCHS Principal Bill Egan wrote in a district-wide email on April 3.
Local officials and community groups condemned the posts. The New Canaan Democratic Town Committee called them “horrific acts of racism and antisemitism.”
“Since Oct. 7, 2023, there has been a dramatic increase in antisemitism, which has made Jewish communities fearful,” the committee stated. “Living under such unimaginably toxic national rhetoric that demeans all sorts of marginalized groups, including Jews, we should not be surprised to see hatred and bigotry reach our community.”
