Alleged antisemitic Halloween costume posts by N.J. students spark confrontation at school board meeting

Parents confronted school leaders Thursday night about alleged antisemitic comments made on social media by students in Manalapan Township, New Jersey.

According to parents, some Manalapan High School students were discussing dressing up as Holocaust victims for Halloween.  

Parents demand answers about discipline against students

Parent Tarra Premisler said she saw the social media posts.

"[They said] they should dress up as shoeless children from the Holocaust, and one of the children, one of the other girls ... said that she wants to fill one of the other girl's vapes with the smoke from the gas chamber," she said. "And they said they should kill us all."

Dozens packed a school board meeting to demand answers about discipline being taken against those students.

"My daughter is sitting home now, crying and anxious every day," one parent said.

"My grandfather is actually the sibling of murdered shoeless Holocaust children," parent Alanna Engel said.  

"Zero tolerance. Expel the children. Send them to an alternative school," Premisler said.

Parent Beth Katz Nelson, the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, came to tell the board the lessons they are currently teaching about the Holocaust are not enough. She is also the deputy director of the Yad Vashem USA Foundation, which preserves the memory of Holocaust survivors and victims.

"Statistics show that a year-long of curriculum really does have an impact," she said.

She said the Anti-Defamation League has found 1 in 5 young adults thinks the Holocaust is a myth.  

Superintendent says district is taking immediate action, committed to education

At Thursday's meeting, Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent Dr. Nicole Hazel said the posts were made outside of school and condemned antisemitism.

"Hate to the level of what appeared in those messages is not created in a vacuum and is not solely created in school, especially in less than five weeks," she said. "Rather it is developed over time and to effectively combat it requires more than just consequences, it demands education."

She said the district was taking immediate action.

Hazel said due to state and federal requirements, she cannot disclose specific information about the students who made the posts, but parents said their punishment should be made public to deter future incidents.

The superintendent also said the district is committed to ongoing Holocaust education.