Antisemitic message found at Central Florida high school
By Senait Gebregiorgis
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ORANGE COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — An investigation is underway after an antisemitic message was found at a high school in Orange County.
The graffiti was on a bathroom wall at Dr. Phillips High School.
WESH 2 spoke with the parent who found the graffiti.
He says he was surprised and disappointed because he has a son who is Jewish that attends Dr. Phillips High School.
He found the graffiti while at a family event hosted by the school Wednesday night and then he reported it to a teacher.
Thursday morning parents received a voicemail from the principal who says law enforcement is helping them investigate who’s responsible.
“I was surprised. I was also scared. There’s a really short distance from speech like that and language like that to actual physical form,” Michael McNarney, a parent, said.
McNarney was at an event hosted by Dr. Phillips High School Wednesday night.
It was a family-friendly gathering but he came across something unwelcoming.
“I actually (had) driven there from dropping one of our kids off at our synagogue and stopped and go to the bathroom, and there it was right there — some Nazi SS symbols, WP for white power,” McNarney said.
He told a teacher about the hate symbols he discovered on the bathroom stall and expressed his disappointment – a feeling the high school principal shares.
A school-wide voicemail was sent to parents Thursday morning.
“This type of behavior will not be tolerated and appropriate discipline will be handed out according to the Code of Student Conduct up to and including suspension, expulsion or arrest,” the principal said in a voicemail.
“I feel like there’s not been enough people speaking out and so it’s occurring more now,” State Rep. Rita Harris said.
The high school is in Harris’ district.
It feels a bit personal for her because she’s of Jewish descent.
“You feel like you are not wanted where you are and it’s really important for students. I mean they spend one-third of their lives at school,” Harris said.
And most of it is spent at home says Rabbi David Kay of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida.
“They’re not coming up with these ideas on their own. They’ve heard it someplace else, they’ve seen it someplace else. It’s being reinforced by adults who have been serving as role models,” Kay said.
“I hope this question is asked in school why somebody thought it would be OK to do this at school? Where has this ignorance come from? Are we doing enough to educate students about other religions, about the holocaust?” McNarney said.
The school and law enforcement are continuing to investigate who’s responsible for the antisemitic message.
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