Florida students engaged in tropes about Epstein, made Nazi salutes, complaint says

Students at a Florida school presented their classmates with antisemitic tropes while making Nazi gestures, according to a complaint announced today.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Akerman law firm announce the complaint, filed with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, on behalf of a Jewish student from the district. The complaint was filed in February, but kept under wraps until today.

The student, a 16-year-old 11th grader, was enrolled at A. Crawford Mosley High School, part of the Bay District Schools system in the Florida panhandle. The student was one of the only Jews in the district, the complaint says.

Last year, in the student’s media studies class, other pupils presented a PowerPoint rife with antisemitic stereotypes, with the support of teachers, according to the complaint.

Photos included in the complaint show that the presentation included images of Jeffrey Epstein alongside an Israeli flag and IDF logo, images of Prime Minister Banjamin Netanyahu, and a cartoonish illustration of a man in a kippah.

Weeks later, in another class, other students presented antisemitic tropes about Jews and money, dual loyalty, and other conspiracies. The non-Jewish students also wore kippahs and made Nazi salutes, and teachers did not interrupt.

Images in the presentation included Jeffrey Epstein and a Mossad logo next to text about “propaganda in the media,” a meme that features a religious Jewish man saying, “The goyim know. Shut it down,” which is popular in white supremacist circles, tropes about AIPAC and Jewish influence over government, and caricatures of religious Jews.

The student’s mother complained, prompting an investigation by the district, which found that the presentation amounted to antisemitic harassment. The district did not take any action in response, however.

The student also saw swastikas drawn onto desks and bathroom stalls. Classmates found out the student was Jewish and responded with a Sieg Heil salute and antisemitic tropes about Jews and money, the complaint says, adding that the student had been targeted in antisemitic bullying and harassment since elementary school, and has since moved to another school in a different state.

The complaint urges the federal Office for Civil Rights to compel the school district to recognize the IHRA definition of antisemitism, enact a zero-tolerance policy for antisemitism, and implement antisemitism training, among other measures to bring the school into compliance with Title VI.

The school district did not respond to a request for comment