Middle school students in Hastings-on-Hudson have called their Black peers "monkeys," shared antisemitic memes, touched other students' genitals, and commented favorably about the Holocaust and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

And there's plenty more.

Some students are behaving so badly that other students don't feel safe − and it's affecting the school's ability to teach, according to a memo sent to staff at Farragut Middle School by the school's principal, Jennifer Spirelli, and assistant principal, Kamillah Dawkins.

The memo, sent Monday, said staff would meet Wednesday to discuss the situation. It also said the school would have to share "concerns and expectations" with school district families. Moving forward, the memo said, the district would need to review how incidents are reported and the district's code of conduct.

The memo was posted in a closed Facebook group Tuesday and shared with The Journal News/lohud.

"Any amount of behavior such as this is too much," Hastings Superintendent William McKersie said in interview Wednesday afternoon. "We're being open and direct about it here in Hastings. The only way we're going to get after students struggling with these behaviors is if we're overt about it, clear about it."

McKersie and Spirelli both said the social-emotional impact of the pandemic on students and a variety of other factors were driving the bad behavior. Middle-school students are generally 11 to 13 years old, meaning most would have been between 8 and 10 between 2020 and 2022.

"It's a socialization problem. It's an educational problem. It's a philosophy problem. It's an internet problem. It's a, you know, political problem," Spirelli said. "I think it's all encompassing."