Education

Lefty School District Sat On Its Hands As Jewish Middle Schooler Was Bullied And Strangled, Lawsuit Alleges

Fahim Fadz/Wikimedia Commons

A lawsuit against a school district in Colorado claims the district has violated legal obligations by repeatedly failing to address and fix the “hostile environment for Jewish students” it has fostered.

The Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) has violated its obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act based on antisemitic discrimination, a legal complaint submitted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claims. A Jewish middle school student in the district has faced antisemitic bullying, harassment, and physical assault by multiple other students for two consecutive years, per the document.

BVSD, located in a deep blue county, has been known for left-wing policies. One hundred of the district’s teachers partook in training “through A Queer Endeavor, a sexuality and gender identity education initiative” in 2016, according to The Denver Post. The training was intended to make the word “gay” more accepted and change school culture by including gay and transgender figures in school lessons. 

“While the Boulder Valley School District does not comment on ongoing legal matters, we take all allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously,” a BVSD spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “We continue to focus on improvements to our policies, reporting systems, practices, and education efforts—all with the goal of ensuring every BVSD student feels safe, welcomed, and a strong sense of belonging.”

The alleged antisemitism began with pejorative remarks directed at the Jewish student by classmates, and escalated to verbal slurs, threats and Nazi salutes in 2024, according to the court document. This then “progressed to repeated physical assaults (including strangulation), antisemitic taunting in the lunch line, after school and in class,” and Holocaust-related mockery.

The mockery included a classmate telling the Jewish student, “at least my grandma didn’t spend 8 years in hiding,” and asking the Jewish student, “do you get scared when someone raises their hand?” and “do you get scared when someone counts to nine?” according to the legal complaint.

In April 2025, after the Jewish student had endured hate speech and physical violence, the student’s father requested “a significant increase in supervision and greater engagement with parents regarding the rise of this behavior in the school,” according to the legal complaint.

The school investigated the conduct of a classmate of the Jewish student after receiving a formal bullying complaint. The classmate had attempted get other students to play a game called “Jew touch tag,” in which “being Jewish would make one the student to be chased,” reported the legal complaint. The same classmate has also been reported by witnesses to have called Jews “dirty” and “contaminated.” The school found that its bullying policy had been violated and the Board Policy AC (Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity) applied. The school documented the findings in a records system, “with a formal founded determination.”

In May 2025, at the end of the student’s 7th grade year, his father requested that the student not be placed in classes with specific classmates who had harassed the Jewish student, according to the complaint. If that was not possible, then he stated he would request a school transfer for his son.

The Southern Hills Middle School (SHMS) principal committed to doing the school’s “best” to avoid scheduling conflicts, but did formally commit to it, nor honor it, according to the court document. She said that if the family felt they would like an administrative transfer, she could “work through that process.” But no transfer was facilitated.

In December 2025, a classmate of the Jewish student “fashioned a Chromebook charging cord into a lasso” during a study hall, threw it around the Jewish student’s neck, and dragged the student from a chair while calling them a slur, according to the court document. This conduct resulted in “a police report, a formal founded bullying determination by SHMS, and a Juvenile Court Referral for third-degree assault.”

Despite the school’s finding, police involvement, and Juvenile Court Referral, the district’s consequence for the classmate who physically assaulted the Jewish student was to suspend the classmate for the remainder of the week and reassign the Jewish student to a different study hall section the following semester, according to the court document.

The BVSD is a district of “[e]xcellence and [e]quity,” according to its website. The complaint notes that the district’s board policies include bullying prevention policy and Board Policy AC (Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity). But, “despite these policies, the District has failed, repeatedly and systematically, to enforce them” on the Jewish student’s behalf, reported the complaint.

In January 2026, the Jewish student’s parents requested support from the school before sending their child back after winter break. The parents requested a no-contact order between their child and the student who physically assaulted their child, “line-of-sight supervision” of their child at all times, that their child be excused from changing for gym class and go to the office instead of attending study halls, according to the legal complaint.

The school offered a break space in the office/counseling area, a no-contact agreement between the Jewish student and the classmate who assaulted them, and two other terms of support, per the lawsuit. The school did not agree to the line-of-sight supervision request.

The bully violated the no-contact order on the first day it took effect and was suspended for a several days, according to the legal complaint. But “the violations did not stop, and the hostile environment continued to intensify.”

The parents of the Jewish student put the school and BVSD “on actual notice of antisemitic harassment in November 2024 and have continued to provide them with written, documented, and urgent notice through the present,” according to the legal document. In April 2025, the school “produced a founded determination of antisemitic bullying.” The Boulder Police Department “opened two cases and has issued a juvenile criminal referral for third-degree assault.” “Formal written demands for protective supervision were submitted” by the student’s parents.

“Despite all of this, the District failed to put into place systemic changes to address the continued antisemitic harassment” the Jewish student has been facing and “has consistently placed the burden of avoiding the hostile environment on “the student — not on those responsible for creating it,” the legal complaint claims.