Yet ANOTHER Seattle Schools' Scandal With Huge Possible Ramifications

Update:

There's a blog called Post Millennial and local radio host, Ari Hoffman, wrote about the Hale issue. He got a copy of the compliant filed in King County Superior Court by the parents of the girl. 

It is quite detailed. This girl was the only Jewish member of the softball team and started hearing antisemitic slurs after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. 

Despite the family reporting this to Principal Jackson, the lawsuit claims the school took no meaningful action. Jackson allegedly acknowledged that the harassment was frequent and severe but failed to implement safety measures or disciplinary steps. Even requests to preserve hallway security footage from an incident where the student was spat on were ignored and the family believes the video was deleted.

That last charge is pretty serious. If the school had video that the family requested in a timely manner and then the video is gone, that's not good.

In one instance, a swastika was drawn on a bench in the girls' home softball dugout, where MKL kept her belongings during games.

When MKL reported this to an assistant coach, she was told the symbol “didn’t look like a swastika.” The head coach reportedly said he would report it, but the complaint states that no action was ever taken by school officials, including Principal Jackson.

Again, if the coach did not report it, why not? 

In class, while reading the book Night by Elie Wiesel, students allegedly laughed at Holocaust passages and one even drew a swastika on MKL’s folder. 

This one should be easy to prove. If it happened, what did the teacher do or say? 

The Nathan Hale Muslim Student Association's Instagram account allegedly posted offensive messages targeting MKL, and a TikTok video falsely accused her of using a racial slur—allegations the family says were intended to label her a racist based solely on her Jewish identity.

The video went unchallenged by school administrators and remained online, damaging MKL’s reputation among peers both at Nathan Hale and neighboring schools.

This kind of issue has been brought before SCOTUS - did/does Hale have the ability to discipline a student group that is a part of the school for things it says outside of school? 

Despite an agreement to provide pass/fail grades due to her forced absence, Nathan Hale allegedly reneged on this, negatively impacting her GPA. The district refused to grant her a safety transfer and instead told her to apply through the general transfer process.

During a June IEP meeting, Principal Jackson reportedly refused to appear in person and left the Zoom call early without answering questions about how the school was addressing antisemitism.

Is there anything proving that the principal reneged on the grades adjustment? Again, if so, not good.

The principal knew that the incident had happened and the district still wouldn't grant her a safety transfer? What did he communicate to the district where they wouldn't give the safety transfer? Did they think she was blowing things out of proportion? 

“The District’s failure to provide a safe educational environment not only harmed our client—it sent a message that antisemitism is tolerated,” said co-counsel Seth Rosenberg. “That is unacceptable in any public institution, let alone in our schools.”

Seattle Public Schools said in a statement to The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, “SPS will review and address these allegations. The district remains dedicated to creating an inclusive and equitable environment for all students, and does not tolerate racism, discrimination, or violence in any form.”

One of these statements is not like the other. 

 If there is a paper trail about this situation at Nathan Hale High, that's bad news. If there is a paper trail to JSCEE, very bad news. 

The director who has Nathan Hale High in their district is Director Liza Rankin. 

end of update

The Times did not allow comments on their webpage but did on its Facebook page. 

Because if this story gets legs nationally, watch the coverage be yet another black eye to SPS.

I just want to remind folks that this is a district that pays executive directors very well to oversee its principals. 

It's a district that (apparently) gives principals HUGE amounts of freedom to oversee what principals (apparently) think are their kingdoms. 

All this keeps costing the district in the public's perception of it as well as yet another large payout should all that has so far been reported is true. 

I don't know if you recall but I reported a month or so ago about some kind of "internal audit" at Nathan Hale High School that had been done by its principal. Which I thought was odd.  Given that Roosevelt High's principal apparently could not perform a decent audit of her own athletic program, I see that perhaps NO principal should ever do their own "internal audit." 

Here's the situation from KING 5 News (bold mine):

A former Nathan Hale High School student said she was a freshman when her classmates began accusing her of supporting genocide in Gaza. 

In a lawsuit filed by her family last week, the teen alleged she was subjected to “rampant antisemitism” throughout the 2023–2024 school year, following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. 

The complaint includes two photos of swastikas found on campus and accuses the school’s principal and vice principal —William Jackson and Makela Steward-Monroe — of failing to meaningfully intervene or protect the student. 

The lawsuit outlines multiple incidents of harassment, including a student spitting on her, death threats, and antisemitic remarks such as “Hitler’s plan should have worked” and “I hate the Jews.”
The lawsuit claimed the harassment escalated, culminating in what the family describes as a hate crime before summer break.

So SPS has a totally bullshit response that I'm not going to allow to grace this page.

Here's how it played out on one particular day (bold mine):

According to the complaint, on May 22, 2024, several students visited the girl’s classes throughout the day, trying to lure her into the hallway. By her final class, a group of about 20 students had gathered outside her classroom, demanding she come out. 

Her teacher locked the door. 

“We mostly shut the blinds but you could see some people trying to look in or banging on the door or yelling we know you’re in there come and get what you deserve,” the student said. 

She was eventually escorted to the office by a security guard, and the school came up with a plan to have her be accompanied by an adult at all times while on campus.

Her mom said the plan did not last long, and she felt she was left with no other option other than to transfer her daughter to another school.

“One day after, you know, giving her an escort, (Principal Steward-Monroe is) immediately telling me we can't keep this up and that we can't keep her safe, even though she'd seen the footage of, you know, these kids banging on the door," the mother said. 

“I felt totally helpless," said the student’s mother, Jennifer, who declined to share her last name. "It’s horrible. I remember appealing to the principal.

Naturally, this student is now at a different school and I'll bet it's not in SPS. 


Questions abound.

1. What are the teacher's thoughts about this? Did she/he/they complain about their own safety to SEA? Because if the students had entered the room and the teacher stood between them and the threatened student, what would those students have done? Attacked the teacher?

2. Of course, the district isn't going to give her a private bodyguard forever but hey, what WAS the plan given how terrible the atmosphere had become?

3. What do I think happened? That this girl, probably Jewish, didn't go along with what some other students demanded that she should think/feel about the Israel/Gaza war. And some kids decided she wasn't allowed her opinion and she needed to be punished for that.

Any decent administrator would have, upon receiving report after report, talked to their VP and counselors and probably convened a grade by grade meeting. Bring in speakers from different sides and allow (civil) discussion. Was that tried? Was anything tried except that "we don't tolerate X,Y, and Z at Nathan Hale High School." 


Funny thing, I wonder what the Board thinks. What Superintendent Podesta thinks? Wonder what might get said at the Board meeting on July 2nd or are they all going to pretend this didn't happen? 

Because it is happening throughout the country and it is now at the door of SPS. 

Again, what's the plan for safety in Seattle Schools' high schools?