Organization says men hurled slurs at Orthodox Jewish students on school bus; school CEO calls report 'incorrect'
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the original source for this report, released the following statement on Friday, Nov. 11 as an addendum to their original news release:
"When the Simon Wiesenthal Center went to press with the story and released the statement below, this was verified by two parents who filed police reports based on what their sons had experienced. In addition, the SWC spoke to two detectives and an officer in the police department who were investigating the students' allegations. We were told this was a hate crime. Later in the day, the school released a statement refuting what the children had reported. The school is now saying that this was not an anti-Semitic incident."
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A human rights organization said a school bus dropping off students from an Orthodox Jewish school was invaded by a group of men who hurled slurs in West Rogers Park, but a representative of the school claimed the report was "based on incorrect facts."
Police said at 5 p.m. Wednesday, a "a group of unknown offenders" stood in front of a school bus in the 2800 block of West Jerome Street and forced it to stop. The offenders then got on the bus and threated to physically harm a 12-year-old boy, police said.
The offenders then got off the bus and ran off, police said.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a news release earlier Thursday going into more detail, reporting that four men jumped onto the bus and, and then began hurling anti-Semitic slurs and throwing up the heil Hitler salute at the terrorized children onboard.
The organization said the bus driver was ultimately able to force the four men off the bus.
But later Thursday, the chief executive officer of the school whose bus was involved wrote that the incident did not involve an anti-Semitic attack, and claimed the narrative was based on "incorrect facts."
"A few kids got into a screaming argument from the bus with one individual," wrote Rabbi Menachem Levine, chief executive officer of Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov – Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi elementary school. "Nothing anti-Semitic, racist or dangerous."
