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Palm Beach County School District faces federal review of potential bias

Palm Beach County led the state in antisemitic incidents in 2023, the ADL reported.

Gavel, Judge, Law, Court
A gavel. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

A federal investigation into potential discrimination involving shared ancestry at Palm Beach County School District opened on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Education will review the case to determine if the district violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

JNS reached out to district representatives for details about the alleged discrimination.

According to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2023 audit, Palm Beach County led the state in antisemitic incidents, documenting 84 cases—an increase from 20 in 2022. As recently as 2023, officials have estimated that about 12% of Palm Beach County’s population is Jewish, the ADL report stated.

“In Palm Beach County specifically, there were 15 bomb threats. That was versus zero the year before,” Sarah Emmons, regional director of ADL Florida, said.

The School District of Palm Beach County is the 10th-largest school district in the country and the fifth-largest in Florida.

Tina Lerno told JNS that she had a “panic attack” and “sat down at my desk and started crying.”
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