'Unacceptable' Rise in Antisemitism on Social Media, Cobb Superintendent Says

MARIETTA — During Thursday night’s Cobb school board meeting, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale sounded the alarm on what he said is a stark rise in antisemitic social media posts.

Ragsdale said Jewish parents and community members have told him their kids feel “forced to engage in social media criticism not only against the state of Israel, but their Jewish heritage in general.

“As the war continues in Israel, it has apparently become popular on social media to post comments that are critical of Israel and supportive of the terrorist organization Hamas. Unfortunately, some of these comments go beyond criticism of the Israeli government, reaching the point of criticism of Jewish citizens and culture,” Ragsdale said.

John Floresta, chief strategy and accountability officer for the district, clarified with the MDJ Friday that Ragsdale was speaking not only to the concerns raised by Jewish parents in Cobb, but to a broader social media trend.

“We have community members who have come to us and said ‘This is happening to our children, both inside Cobb, outside Cobb, online, in person … You can go find a plethora of anti-Jewish sentiment, particularly that has sprung up over the last 12 months … that’s not unique to Cobb County, the state of Georgia or, frankly, the country,” Floresta said.

Floresta said all reports of antisemitism have come from parents and community members, not school staff.

Daniel Dorsch, senior rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim in east Cobb, said he shares the concern Ragsdale expressed.

“(Antisemitism) continues, as always, to be a very pervasive concern for the Jewish community, whether it’s on social media or in real life,” Dorsch said.

He added that he’s thankful for a strong partnership with the district to continue fighting against hate, which he believes starts with empathetic education.

“I think it’s really important that we continue to teach empathy in the classroom,” Dorsch said. “We can’t see ourselves as strangers, we have to see ourselves as brothers and sisters and neighbors who all share this wonderful country together.”

The superintendent went on to say the behavior was “ridiculous” and “unacceptable,” and warned that if such sentiment was expressed on any Cobb campus, there would be repercussions.

“I do not refer to discrimination of this sort as a joke or a prank or a fad. If this behavior interferes with teaching and learning, or a child’s desire to come to school, it is my expectation it will be dealt with immediately, and with appropriate consequences. Actions have consequences. And without consequences, negative actions will continue unchecked,” Ragsdale said.

Bullying Prevention

Earlier in his remarks, Ragsdale updated the board about the district’s bullying prevention program that was developed “in house,” stating that training has been conducted for staff at all schools for the 2024-25 school year.

In a December 2023 interview with the MDJ, Ragsdale was asked to describe what Cobb’s new program looked like for students.

“I can’t speak to the very details down in the weeds. I can speak at the 100,000-foot level to it. And that is that we’re not going to allow hate in any form or fashion against any group or individual. And we take that very seriously when punishment comes into play. When people bring or students bring that level of hate to schools, as soon as we’re made aware of it, we go into it, and we apply the discipline appropriately,” he said in response.

Until 2021, the district had previously used the “No Place for Hate” program in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League.

Shortly after the program was nixed, School Board Chairman Randy Scamihorn said the decision was an effort to keep political indoctrination out of Cobb’s classrooms.

“It’s my understanding that ‘No (Place) for Hate’ started out many years ago as an excellent program, and over the course of time, over revisions and changes, somebody took it upon themselves to start putting things in there that the staff did not feel was appropriate. So it was not a decision made in haste or in reprisal of anything. It was, we are trying to keep politics and indoctrination out of our school,” Scamihorn said in a 2021 interview with the MDJ.

More work needed

Jeff Hubbard, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators, said his members miss “No Place for Hate.”

“‘No Place for Hate’ was an outstanding, outstanding program,” Hubbard said. “... There were a lot of teachers that were very much against getting rid of that program. But, as the board chairman said, they felt there were some political things being put into it. I respectfully disagree, because the curriculum never really changed within the program.”

Hubbard said he thinks the district’s new anti-bullying program would have greater success if it was taught more. According to him, students have instruction just three times a year.

“In order for it to be truly effective, they’re going to have to do more than just teach it on three separate occasions during the school year,” he said. “I think it is something that our schools would be very wise to keep revisiting it and teaching it to our students, and reminding them that behaviors such as what we’ve been seeing … are not acceptable.”

Hubbard said he’s received reports of not just antisemitic behavior in Cobb, but Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia.

In October, members of Cobb’s Muslim community criticized the district’s decision to send out an alert to parents about an “international threat” posed by the Hamas, telling the MDJ it exposed their children to bullying.

“Unfortunately, it is something we have been dealing with as a system,” Hubbard said. “... We’ve had behaviors that have been unacceptable to students of the Islamic faith, we’ve had unacceptable behavior to students of color, to our students who have immigrated from other countries. Hopefully the new program that the system has put in place will address inappropriate behaviors … (for) all stakeholders.”