Federal complaint alleges MCPS student faced years of antisemitic harassment

A recent Montgomery County Public Schools graduate faced years of antisemitic harassment, including a telephoned bomb threat that was immediately followed by the setting off of fireworks outside his home, according to a new civil rights complaint.

The Title VI complaint — filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of an unnamed student — outlines years of reported issues and demands a federal investigation.

“Despite repeated notice of anti-Semitic threats, harassment, and ostracization directed at a visibly Jewish student at Montgomery Blair High School,” the complaint reads, “the District failed to take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to eliminate the hostile environment, remedy its effects, and prevent its recurrence.”

The filing comes as Jews nationally have grappled with increased antisemitic violence targeting synagogues, schools and Jewish-owned businesses amid the 3-year-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as well as Israel’s recent military campaigns in Iran and Lebanon.

In Montgomery County, home to the largest Jewish population in Maryland, dozens of local rabbis and cantors recently sent a letter to Superintendent Thomas Taylor demanding the district address “skyrocketing school-based antisemitism.”

“We are alarmed that the lack of a meaningful response by MCPS has led to an increase in the normalization of antisemitic attitudes, language and behaviors in our schools,” they wrote.

Taylor responded to the faith leaders by committing to “collaborative dialogue with you to identify what meaningful actions MCPS can implement.”

District officials are aware of the recent Title VI filing, said Liliana López, a spokesperson for the school system. “As this is an ongoing matter, we are unable to provide further comment at this time,” she said in a statement.

The Brandeis Center has filed a slew of complaints against school districts and colleges over antisemitism allegations.

The allegations

The 15-page complaint, filed Oct. 15 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, outlines years of alleged antisemitic harassment faced by the Orthodox Jewish student.

According to the filing, the student was open about his connection to Israel and shared his plans to study there after graduation.

Other students allegedly accused him of supporting genocide, spread rumors that he was joining the Israel Defense Forces and urged their classmates to shun him for being a Zionist.

“Fear of confrontation or physical harm caused him to reduce his attendance and leave school early during the final weeks of his senior year,” the complaint states.

In April, the student was participating in a student-organized game in which seniors try to “eliminate” one another using water guns. Students shared their locations in order to participate in this “Senior Assassin” game.

While the teenager was at home, the complaint reads, he received a call from someone saying, “You F-----g Zionist, you F-----g Jew. I am going to bomb you.”

After the call ended, fireworks were set off outside of his house. The student’s mother reported the incident to Montgomery Blair High School administrators the next day.

“The school expressed concern, checked on [the student], and said it would look into the incident, but emphasized that Senior Assassin was not school sanctioned,” according to the complaint.

“While Blair processed a bullying/harassment complaint, initiated a safety plan, and conducted check-ins with [the student], these measures did not restore [the student’s] sense of safety or ability to participate fully in school,” it added.

His mother continued submitting bullying complaints to Blair’s principal, district administrators and the MCPS equity office.

According to her account, “the school determined that the incidents did not meet its criteria for bullying, harassment, or hate speech because they did not involve a pattern of conduct by the same students.”

Problems continued through the end of the student’s time in MCPS.

Blair High School developed an in-school safety plan and a strategy for graduation. The student was supposed to be seated at the end of the row during the ceremony, separate from students who had harassed him.

“These measures provided some protection but did not address the hostile environment,” the complaint reads. “He continued to fear confrontation or physical harm, left school early when overwhelmed, and attended as little as possible.”

Broader issues

The complaint states that problems with antisemitism extend beyond this student’s experience at Blair. They cited a September incident in which a student discovered a swastika drawn on a desk at Walter Johnson High School.

At a recent school board meeting, district leaders reported that they’d seen an increase in hate bias incidents. During the 2024-25 school year, the district fielded roughly 250 hate bias incidents. In 2025-2026, there were 600.

More than half of the incidents targeted Black students, and roughly 140 involved antisemitism, according to data provided to The Banner by MCPS. About 22% of MCPS students are Black. The district does not publish data on students’ religious affiliation.

“An uptick in hate bias reporting may be an outcome of additional people being trained,” Taylor told board members.

The superintendent has repeatedly pledged that hate has no place in Montgomery County’s racially and religiously diverse school system.

Still, its campuses have seen rising tensions since Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping another 251. Israel responded with a military campaign thatGaza’s health ministry says has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians. Some have labeled this genocide, a charge Israel rejects.

In the Title VI complaint, Brandeis Center attorneys made several requests for action. Among them, they want the Montgomery County school system to retain an outside monitor for at least five years “to review the District’s investigation and disposition of complaints of discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including anti-Semitism.”

They also want mandatory training on “contemporary stereotypes and the targeting of Jewish students through accusations concerning Israel.”