A Richmond, Vancouver family says an antisemitism problem at their daughter’s high school hasn’t been addressed adequately after she found another set of swastikas etched on a desk.
Aliyah Morgan, in Grade 9 at Steveston-London Secondary, sat at a new desk for a group activity in late January and saw two swastikas scratched into the wood.
It’s not clear whether the person who carved the swastikas was targeting Aliyah since multiple classes use the room, but her mother, Dina Morgan, questions why a student thought to carve them in the first place.
“Why is that your first doodle? When did it become Nazi symbolism?” Morgan said. “When there’s a Nazi problem in the school.”
Aliyah already experienced two previous incidents of antisemitic bullying at SLSS, where one student suggested she take a “gas shower,” and another student told her his people “have names, not numbers.”
She also found a swastika carved into her choir music stand. Again, it’s not known who drew it or whether it explicitly targeted her.
Dina doesn’t think the school has done enough to address the issue. She wanted the school to bring in a guest speaker to educate students about the Holocaust and antisemitism, but that hasn’t happened. She also alleges SLSS failed to support her daughter as she changed classrooms to be separated from the students who made the offensive remarks.
Aliyah was switched to a different science class with a different teacher. This new cohort had learned the class material in a different order than her previous class, and as a result, Aliyah fell behind. With little support to catch up, Dina questioned why her daughter was moved instead of the boys.
Dina doesn’t think the school has done enough to address the issue. She wanted the school to bring in a guest speaker to educate students about the Holocaust and anti-semitism, but that hasn’t happened. She also alleges SLSS failed to support her daughter as she changed classrooms to be separated from the students who made the offensive remarks.
Aliyah was switched to a different science class with a different teacher. This new cohort had learned the class material in a different order than her previous class, and as a result, Aliyah fell behind. With little support to catch up, Dina questioned why her daughter was moved instead of the boys.
Last year was the fourth consecutive record-setting year for antisemitism in Canada, according to B’nai Brith’s 2019 audit of anti-semitic incidents; more than 2,200 incidents were reported, 8% more than the previous year.