- Fordham Prep, a Jesuit Catholic school in the Bronx, wrote to parents to inform them that students had been caught spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti
- The students drew anti-Semitic symbols and slogans on October 9, two days after the Hamas terror attack, the school’s director and president said.
- The students have been suspended and the school says they may involve police
Students at a Catholic high school in New York City have been suspended and are facing a possible hate crime investigation after they were caught creating anti-Semitic graffiti.
Parents at Fordham Prep, a $24,000-a-year Jesuit school for boys in the Bronx, have been informed of the suspensions.
The students were seen spraying graffiti outside campus on Oct. 9, Anthony Day, the school’s president, and Joseph Petriello, the school’s president, said in their letter to parents.
The names of the students were not mentioned and it was unclear how many people were involved.
On October 9, a group of four young men were spotted in Upper Manhattan graffitiing swastikas on a building. It is not known if they are Fordham Prep students.
Fordham Prep currently has 950 students in grades nine through twelve.
Fordham Preparatory School, where costs are nearly $24,000 a year, has suspended students for creating anti-Semitic graffiti
School officials called the boys’ actions “deplorable.”
The graffiti was sprayed two days after the Hamas terror attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and has sparked a wave of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City rose 330 percent in the three weeks after the terrorist attack.
There were 16 reports in September and 69 in October, according to a review of NYPD data by California State University, San Bernardino.
Day and Petriello said the school “unequivocally condemns offensive and hateful speech and action in all its forms.”
“Anti-Semitic speech and actions are contrary to our Jesuit Catholic values,” they added.
‘Hate speech has no place in our community.’
They said the entire student body had been addressed about the situation, through a series of meetings for each class.