Lawsuit alleges antisemitic bullying at Seattle's Nathan Hale High

SEATTLE — A former Nathan Hale High School student’s parents are suing Seattle Public Schools on behalf of their daughter, alleging the district failed to protect her from months of antisemitic harassment after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and retaliatory strikes on Gaza.

The lawsuit filed this month in King County Superior Court includes photos of swastikas drawn around campus and accounts of students telling her “Hitler’s plan should have worked, “I hate Jews" and to kill herself for being Jewish, and calling her racist and Islamophobic.

The months of harassment came to a head on May 22, 2024, when a group of about 20 students allegedly chased the girl through the school and threatened to physically assault her because she was Jewish. She hid in a locked classroom with a teacher as other students texted her that they were going to assault her, according to the complaint. She has since transferred to a different school.

“I never ever thought in my worst nightmares could I have imagined (my daughter) would be dealing with this sort of thing,” said the student’s mother, who asked not to be named out of concern for her daughter’s safety. The student and her parents are identified only by initials in the complaint.

“This was a horribly traumatic and devastating year for my child, and I don’t want anyone else to have to go through the same thing," she said.

Seattle Public Schools will review and address the allegations, wrote Sophia Charcuk, a spokesperson for the district, in an email.

“The district remains dedicated to creating an inclusive and equitable environment for all students, and does not tolerate racism, discrimination, or violence in any form,” wrote Charcuk.

When asked if the district was made aware of the harassment and took any steps to stop it, the district responded it would address the allegations through its filings in the pending litigation.

The complaint alleges that district employees failed to properly investigate the incidents and provide a safe learning environment for the student, and said it should have known that employees were "unfit to supervise, protect and educate" the student.

The now-15-year-old student suffered "emotional distress" because of the incidents, missing the last several weeks of school and then transferring, according to the complaint.

The complaint said she has a diagnosed anxiety disorder and an individualized education plan that is developed for students with a disability who need specialized instruction or services. She continues to experience "nightmares, flashbacks and sleep disturbances, fear of going into public and severe anxiety," it said.

The complaint alleges the school administration “never attempted to mitigate this hostile environment for (the student) and other Jewish students, including not taking the cursory step of emailing the student body to address the swastikas appearing all over campus.”

But members of the Jewish community reached out to the Jewish Community Relations Council in March 2024 about anti-Jewish harm at Nathan Hale, said Max Patashnik, director of JCRC and public affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. The nonprofit works with families and schools by connecting them to resources, training and support.

The group organized a listening session with the principal, where parents and students could share their experiences, she said. They also met with school leadership to offer guidance and connected them to resources. Patashnik said they also brought in Project Shema, a national leader for trainings on antisemitism and Jewish identity, particularly for non-Jewish audiences, to offer a 90-minute virtual training for all staff at the school.

Beyond the school campus, the complaint alleges that the student was cyberbullied via TikTok videos and Instagram messages.

Such actions are part of "an absolute explosion of bullying taking place in the schools,” said Keith Altman, a student rights lawyer who is not connected to the case. “And it’s so easy to do. Bullying used to be something you had to do in person, but now with social media, (students) can take bullying to the airways and can really do a lot of harm."

“In a lot of these circumstances, the religious aspect is really just an excuse to be a bully,” said Altman.

The former Nathan Hale student is treated much better at her new school, said her mother. But it’s still been difficult because she has lost almost all of her friends from Nathan Hale.

“We live so close we can hear the football games and graduations at our house, so it stings even more,” said the mother. “It hurts because she knows that it was supposed to be her school and her community, only she wasn’t kept safe there, and she was forced to leave.”

The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction came out with guidance in September 2024 on how schools are obligated by federal nondiscrimination laws to respond to discriminatory harassment, which includes harassment based on race, religion and national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.

The agency put out the guidance after receiving an increase in reports of antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Muslim hate and bias, and discriminatory harassment against Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington worked with OSPI to rewrite this guidance, "in part to disentangle antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and students’ rights to free speech," wrote Katie Walker, communications director for the council, in an email.

"Though the new guidance has not yet been published, we are hopeful that it will be soon, and that clearer guidance will have positive outcomes for Washington state’s teachers, students, and families, Walker wrote.

President Donald Trump's administration has reduced the number of employees in charge of investigating discrimination complaints filed to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, meaning fewer resources are going toward illuminating discrimination in schools. However, he has prioritized a subset of cases, including antisemitism.

“Pushing this issue pushes everybody’s civil rights,” said Seth Rosenberg, the family's lawyer. “We’re not just asking that this girl be respected because she is Jewish; we are asking that this person be respected because of their religious preference and that holds true for whatever your religious preference is. Nobody should be singled out for this.”