Hate graffiti found in schools in Commack, Smithtown, Syosset 

Anti-Black and anti-Jewish graffiti was reported in several Long Island schools this week, the latest in what educators have called an alarming spate of hate incidents that reflect a national trend. 

On Thursday evening, Syosset school superintendent Thomas Rogers emailed the school community that district staff had found a racial epithet and three swastikas in a South Woods Middle School bathroom.

On Wednesday, Smithtown superintendent Mark Secaur said in an email to his school community that antisemitic graffiti was found on a student desk at Smithtown High School East. On Tuesday, Commack superintendent Jordan Cox said in a letter that a swastika was found in a high school bathroom there — the second found this month. After that letter was sent, school officials found anti-Black graffiti at the high school. 

All three administrators said in their emails that they had reported the incidents to the police and would seek criminal prosecution. The incidents come amid a global spike in antisemitism, documented by the Anti-Defamation League and others, and weeks after the release of an FBI report that included data on thousands of race-based hate crimes across the United States last year. 

“Antisemitism or any form of hatred within our schools will not be tolerated,” Cox wrote. “Once the responsible individual is found, I am committed to pursuing legal action to the fullest extent.”

Said Secaur: "Antisemitism has no place in our schools or community and will not be tolerated." 

Rogers said South Woods principal Michelle Burget would address the school Friday to "reinforce our expectations of all students, the potential consequences of actions that harm our school community, and our absolute intolerance for hate of any kind."

In an email, a Suffolk police spokesperson said Hate Crimes Unit detectives were investigating the incidents in Commack and Smithtown. The Commack graffiti, found on the stall of a boys bathroom Tuesday, was etched and drawn in black marker. Detectives were investigating possible connections to a swastika found Nov. 6 in another bathroom in the high school. The investigation into the first incident is "ongoing," said the spokesperson. A Nassau police spokeswoman said she did not yet have information on an investigation there. 

Veronique Bailey, president of the NAACP's Huntington branch, said she was encouraged by the Commack district's response to the swastikas but "I encourage and implore them to do the same for the racist remarks." 

Rick Lewis, CEO of the Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center and the Suffolk Y JCC, said he was “hearing from many superintendents that they have issues” of hate and bias incidents in their schools. “It’s not just Commack.”

About 10 school districts including Commack plan to send student leaders and teachers to an anti-hate program at the center, which will focus on social media and gaming, he said.

The FBI's October release of 2022 national crime statistics revealed that race-based crimes remained the most common hate crimes, with 3,421 anti-Black incidents — more than three times higher than the next racial or ethnic category. Bailey said the anti-Black graffiti was especially hurtful because it came after the discovery of a racial epithet on benches in Huntington last year. "Our children should feel they're included, that they are an important part of the community, and for these things to still happen — it's absurd." 

In recent weeks researchers for the ADL, a Jewish advocacy group, have tracked an increase in online antisemitism since the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas in Israel. The ADL said in a release Monday that the group had documented 832 incidents of antisemitic assault, vandalism and harassment nationally between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7, more than triple the number over the same period last year

ADL researchers said in a Nov. 9 blog post that antisemitic posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, grew by 919% in the week after the Hamas attacks. Antisemitic posts on Facebook grew 28% that week.

Across Long Island schools, at least five widely reported antisemitic behaviors and racist episodes have occurred within the first month and a half of the 2023-24 school year. Newsday reported in late October that district officials from Port Washington to Riverhead have addressed these, with some educators worrying the occurrences will worsen as war continues in the Mideast.

Scott Richman, regional director of ADL’s New York/New Jersey office, said in an interview that it was often hard for authorities to "find perpetrators of graffiti unless there are cameras around, or sometimes somebody knows and will tell someone else … It's relatively rare." 

The swastika found in Commack, he added, could be understood as an anti-American symbol as well as an anti-Jewish one. "Four hundred thousand American soldiers lost their lives fighting against that symbol" in World War II, he said. "It's insulting as Americans. I think every single person in that school should be up in arms about this." 

In his letter to the school community, Cox said district officials would arrange a presentation from the police department’s Hate Crimes Unit. Additionally, he said the district had multiple initiatives underway to combat hate at its schools.

At the high school, student leaders were scheduled to attend the program on fighting hate in social media at the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center. Sophomores are viewing Holocaust survivor stories recorded by the Shoah Foundation, and in the spring will visit the Holocaust museum on Long Island. The district will continue offering a stand-alone Holocaust Studies course. Educators also plan to host Ruth Minsky Sender, an author and Holocaust survivor.

Rabbi Beth Klafter of Temple Beth David, a nearby Reform congregation, said some parents in her congregation with children in Commack schools had told her they worried for their children’s safety after discovery of the swastikas.

“In the environment we’re living in, there is that fear,” she said. “I, as a Jewish adult, have lived my entire life on Long Island — this is the first time in my lifetime that I have some fear over my safety because of antisemitism. It is rampant.”

Some of those parents feel “here we go again,” she said.

Newsday has reported several antisemitic incidents in recent years in Commack, and one — in 1993 — where slurs were painted on the high school track hours before graduation. That incident led to convictions with jail time for two high school graduates.

Klafter said she'd met with Cox and was heartened by his commitment to increasing the district’s efforts to teach about antisemitism and to seek prosecution for whoever drew the swastikas.

But, she said, “there’s only so much any educational curriculum can do when children are learning from parents, from social media, from the environment they live in about antisemitism. You can’t possibly teach every student when it’s so much of what they see around them."

Gov. Kathy Hochul, asked Wednesday at an event in Westbury about a rise in antisemitism on Long Island, called it "unconscionable" and said state government was investing $15 million to step up local police protection of schools and houses of worship, in addition to $25 million already allocated for security upgrades at those sites.

"We will also find perpetrators, prosecute and make an example of anyone who violates the rights of individuals to be free," she said.