Published 6/8/24 by the Washington Examiner; story by Peter Cordi The Department of Education has opened over 100 civil rights investigations into universities and school districts since tensions boiled over on campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. California had the most investigations into its schools of any state. Of the 103 Title VI investigations relating to tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, the vast majority involve antisemitic conduct. There have also been lawsuits alleging anti-Palestinian bias at some schools. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there was a 400% uptick in antisemitic incidents in the wake of the onset of the war while 2023 saw a record number of such incidents. Anti-Muslim incidents have also increased. There have been 28 states with similar investigations since Oct. 7, and California and New York are head and shoulders above the others, with 21 and 15 opened, respectively. Pennsylvania had eight, Illinois had seven, and Massachusetts and New Jersey had six each. Ohio, Georgia, Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, and Maryland each had three investigations. Kansas, Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, North Carolina, and Indiana had two. Nevada, Montana, Virginia, Missouri, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Vermont, Hawaii, and Texas each had one. Examples of conduct prompting civil rights investigations Since Oct. 7, the number of incidents of antisemitism on campuses has increased. There have been several reports of Jewish students being physically assaulted or blocked from entering a public area, and numerous cases of antisemitic slurs being hurled at students. Kenneth Marcus, founder and head of the Brandeis Center, pointed out to the Washington Examiner one especially notable instance in Ohio State University’s campus community where a student was asked, “Are you a Jew?” When the student acknowledged that he and his friends were Jewish, two men allegedly “punched one of the Jewish students and threw him into the street.” Yael Lerman, director of StandWithUs legal department, identified three trends aside from antisemitic speech being seen on campus since Oct. 7 in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Besides physical violence or threats and barrier of entry, Lerman said “retaliation or false claims” have been the subjects of multiple university disciplinary proceedings in which Jewish or Zionist students have allegedly been falsely accused of misconduct. She additionally noted that the kind of conduct seen at high schools generally differs from what is seen on college campus, with more “classic antisemitism” such as slurs and tropes reported at high schools, but the “anti-Zionist strand” is seen more in higher education. While the vast majority of conduct resulting in civil rights lawsuits and subsequent investigations has involved acts of antisemitic speech or violence, there have also been several lawsuits, especially following the breaking up of anti-Israel encampments, alleging anti-Muslim or anti-Palestinian bias. An April lawsuit against Columbia University alleged that Arab students, particularly those wearing keffiyehs and hijabs, were targets of harassment including being called terrorists and receiving death threats. The lawsuit also claimed “discriminatory treatment” of Palestinian students “protesting peacefully” because the school allowed the police to break up the anti-Israel encampment. The City University of New York School of Law was also sued in April over the alleged removal of student fliers “supporting Palestinian lives and liberation,” increased surveillance and police presence at the school in response to anti-Israel “activism,” and the “last-minute” cancellation of a campus event about Gaza. Legal advocacy groups such as the Brandeis Center, the ADL, Palestine Legal, and the Center for Constitutional Rights typically handle cases such as these, but individuals have also filed complaints on their own or someone else’s behalf. Lerman called it “unprecedented” to see pro bono cases being eagerly taken on in this capacity and pointed to Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP as one major firm involved in high-profile Title VI lawsuits. Civil rights investigations most likely to generate accountability Lerman explained that the complaints filed by “broader” advocacy groups “generally speaking … will be more likely to have the evidence and witness necessary for [the Office for Civil Rights] to make a finding,” as opposed to investigations based on “quick complaints drawn up by concerned community members.” She noted that the ones specifically filed by StandWithUs, including at Middlebury College in particular, are “all equally egregious because we don’t file Title VI complaints unless we think they’re worthy of full investigation.” Marcus, who was appointed as assistant secretary of education for civil rights during the Trump administration, echoed a similar sentiment and called on the Office for Civil Rights to “take action on every one of our complaints” because “they all describe untenable situations that shouldn’t be permitted at federally funded institutions.” “I’m concerned that until we actually see universities starting to lose their federal funding, we’re not going to actually see significant change in how these schools address antisemitism,” Lerman said. “We need to start seeing some of the schools lose their federal funding in order for real change to start happening.” The latest in California Of the 14 related Title VI civil rights investigations opened up by the Department of Education in the month of May, six were in California. No other state had more than one. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has acknowledged the rise in antisemitism and anti-Muslim discrimination in the wake of Oct. 7 through a number of actions, including publishing a plan to combat antisemitism in the Golden State, highlighting efforts to address anti-Muslim bias, and calling on the state’s education leaders to take additional steps to protect students. Newsom has also authorized the expansion of funds to bolster security at religious institutions, traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli leaders and victims of the Oct. 7 attack, and convened with both Jewish and Arab leaders in his own state. “Antisemitism, Islamophobia, hatred and bigotry in all forms have no place at the CSU,” Amy Bently-Smith, director of strategic communications and public affairs at California State University said in a statement. “Any act of hatred or discrimination creates a hostile environment that can interfere with a student’s right to access, benefit from, and feel safe in their education programs or an employee’s right to access, benefit from, and feel safe in the workplace. Hostile environment harassment and discrimination is prohibited by the law and CSU policy.” The Washington Examiner reached out to the California Department of Education, the California Justice Department, and the University of California for comment.