A seventh grader in Solon, Ohio, went to school on Oct. 22 wearing his kippah and a shirt that said "Shalom." It was Cultural Awareness Day at Solon Middle School, part of Unity Week, and students were asked to come dressed in their heritage. He came dressed as a Jew.
Four days later he stood up in front of the Solon Board of Education wearing the same outfit, and told them what it had gotten him. A classmate gave him the Nazi salute in the middle of class. A friend, also dressed Jewishly, got the same in a hallway. Other students told the board there were "Heil Hitler" chants and remarks about picking up money.
And then he said something a seventh grader should not have to be wise enough to say. He had visited a Holocaust museum over the summer, and what stayed with him was that it began with words and behavior before it became violence. His answer was not revenge. It was more learning, for every culture, not only for Jews.
The older kids spoke too
More than 40 people filled the room on Oct. 26. Two Solon High juniors, who have been in the district since kindergarten, spoke together. They told the board that as middle schoolers four years ago, Jewish students faced slurs, jokes about their noses, and a Jewish summer camp compared to a concentration camp. They said one English book in middle school is not enough to call students educated about the Shoah.
Their request was education, not punishment. A suspension removes a disruption for a few days, they said, but it does not heal a community or change a mind. They asked that Jewish history, culture and traditions get an equal, permanent place in what Solon teaches.
A third junior said antisemitism at the high school has become normal, and listed examples, including a classmate who claimed during a Holocaust lesson that only 150,000 people were affected, without correction from the teacher.
Robert Zelwin, a Solon resident, son of survivors and past president of the Kol Israel Foundation, which brings students in to learn about Yiddishkeit and the Holocaust, said he had believed middle schoolers were too young for that education. Listening to these children, he said, changed his mind. He wants it mandatory from middle school on.
What the school says
Principal Rocco Sciarabba wrote to families the day after, calling the incidents especially disappointing given the day. Solon Schools says consequences were issued but will not describe them, citing student privacy law. The district says it is working with the ADL and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, and is looking at the ADL's No Place for Hate program. The Federation says Superintendent Fred Bolden told it appropriate discipline was taken, and it has asked any family with concerns to reach out.
The seventh grader himself told the board the administration handled his case quickly and made him feel safe. That deserves to be said too.
What came after
Once the story spread on Facebook, the comment sections filled with the same thing in another form: caricatures, conspiracy memes, and people calling the whole thing a lie. Our sister publication, The Hate Record, has documented what was posted. One parent wrote there that her child says similar things are happening at the district's fifth- and sixth-grade building, which we are working to confirm.
The boy in the kippah asked for one thing: that his classmates learn. Solon now has to decide whether it was listening.
This report draws on coverage of the Oct. 26 Solon Board of Education meeting by the Cleveland Jewish News, Fox 8 and WKYC, on the principal's Oct. 23 letter as reported, and on statements by the district, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and the ADL to those outlets. Students are minors and are not named. Accounts of earlier incidents are what students told the board and have not been independently confirmed. Solon City Schools has been asked for comment, and its answer will be added. Solon families who want to share their experience can reach us at [email protected]. Corrections and additions are welcome.