12-Year-Old’s Antisemitism Forces Jewish Teacher to Resign

• A Jewish middle school teacher resigned after enduring months of antisemitism from one of his students.
• Morrison Robblee expressed that the school administrators failed to address his concerns seriously.
• This incident reflects a troubling pattern of rising antisemitism across the nation.

A middle school teacher in Massachusetts, who identifies as Jewish, made the difficult decision to resign after enduring prolonged antisemitic harassment from one of his sixth-grade students. According to the teacher, Morrison Robblee, the student’s behavior escalated over time to include Nazi jokes and references to the Holocaust.

As reported by The Berkshire Eagle, the twelve-year-old student is now facing a misdemeanor charge of criminal harassment following his arrest by the Dalton Police Department. The district attorney’s office is collaborating with organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires to address and prevent future hate incidents.

Robblee detailed his experience, explaining that the harassment began in February when the student directed homophobic slurs at him. Despite a restorative circle session, the situation did not improve, and in April, the student made derogatory comments about the Jewish kippah worn by Robblee during Passover. The student later presented a disturbing drawing depicting Adolf Hitler and a deceased person labeled “Jew,” further escalating the situation.

Courtesy of Morrison Robblee

The school took temporary measures after the incident by suspending the student and transferring him out of Robblee’s class. However, despite these actions, the student continued to harass Robblee outside the classroom through offensive emails and written notes. In May, Robblee filed a grievance with his union, reporting an unsafe work environment, and alerted the police about the student’s antisemitic drawings and communication.

In an interview with Insider, Robblee expressed his dissatisfaction with the school’s response, emphasizing the need for earlier and more comprehensive intervention. He suggested the removal of the student from the classroom, the assignment of a behavior technician or paraprofessional, and implementation of school-wide anti-bias education as potential solutions. Despite a verbal reprimand from the administration, Robblee ultimately chose to resign due to the perceived lack of seriousness in addressing the issue.

The incident in Dalton aligns with a national trend of increasing antisemitism. A report by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Anti-Defamation League revealed a 36% rise in antisemitic incidents across the United States in the past year, with a nearly 50% increase in campus and school-related incidents.