Bullying, Threatening Jewish Children in Toronto

"They told him, we need to kill you.They started shoving and kicking him. And he was really vulnerable and by himself in that situation. The vice-principal who was outside in the playground, she was standing probably far away, so she couldn't hear what was transpiring, but when it started to become physical, she went to defuse the situation."

"And when my son told her, 'Can I please share with you what happened? [she told him 'I don't have time for this'."

"We were at a bit of [a] loss, but that same evening, a parent knocked on our door saying, 'I've heard so-and-so happened from my child. I want to just make sure that  you're all OK'."

"They [the Faywood Arts-Based Curriculum School, North York, Toronto] need to do something. They're doing literally nothing. They say they're doing stuff but nobody knows what they're doing."

Adi Cohen, mother of four school-age children, Israeli doctor in Canada on fellowship

A community support walk was held earlier this week to allow the bullied boy to walk safely to school. Photo by Larry Maher

A visiting Israeli family of two parents, both doctors working temporarily in Toronto in the medical profession is unimpressed with the Toronto District School Board having taken no discernible action relating to the ongoing, serious and threatening antisemitism their two oldest children, in Grades 8 and 5 are experiencing. Their two other children, in Grade 3 and senior kindergarten have not yet suffered any of these worrisome indignities.

 

Repeated bullying suffered by the two older children predates the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, but since then the confrontations have escalated. Death threats have been uttered against both children. Three police reports were filed by the family, owing to the school's inaction in creating a safe environment for their Jewish students. Incidents serious enough to alarm other members of the community some of whose children had experienced similar bullying.

Their concerns resulted in a "community support walk" that took place one Friday morning a few days back, a symbolic move that sent a message that all is not well. There was one incident when the second oldest child in the Cohen family was accosted while his older brother was elsewhere. A group of students uttered death threats mocking that his older brother wasn't available to protect him. After the incident the older brother approached the group and a physical altercation ensued.

 

Hundreds of community members gathered to walk Eitan Cohen, 13, to his school – Faywood Arts-Based Curriculum School – in North York to ensure the Jewish boy didn't get bullied on Friday, May 17, 2024. Supplied

The Cohen parents went to the school to speak with the vice-principal and principal the following day when an investigation was launched concluding that "comments were made on both sides". When the school administration was pressed for details, Adi Cohen was informed her son had told the group to "go back to their homeland"; a clue that the group was comprised of Muslim youth. Her son, however denied that statement, correcting it that he had really said, "go to your room lunch".

"He has a pretty heavy [Israeli] accent. and they took the aggressors' words for what happened without even asking and the aggressors denied everything that happened." Following another meeting with parents and representatives of the school board the investigation was reopened. She was informed by another principal the second investigation found the incidents occurred just as her son described, yet she was left with no impression that the other students faced any consequences, as a result of privacy laws.

Citing another incident, the older boy was bullied on video that was shared on social media, where a substitute teacher failed to intervene. Her son felt provoked to action and attempted to snatch the phone from another student. "The school is doing nothing, the teacher was doing nothing, they just let it happen. At some point, he got so frustrated, he tried to physically take the phone away and then they wanted to suspend him for violence", she explained.

In yet another incident sticks, stones and a water bottle were thrown at her son as he walked to school. The boy has been warned by other students that they would "do to him what Hamas did to Israel". A WhatsApp community group organized a day of support walk for the two boys, sending out a flyer to garner support, reading: "Our community must act. If school can't keep our kids safe, we will." The flyer also read: "No megaphones, no flags, this is about our children's safety".

The visiting Israeli mother's activism inspired other families of other students at the school who are "terrified" to thank her for speaking out publicly and bringing attention to the situation where Muslim students are preying on Jewish students in a situation where those in authority appear to be sitting on their hands and ostensibly waiting for things to calm down; in the process of doing nothing, signalling that the threats and bullying can continue without disciplinary action being taken.

 

In Toronto, community members come to walk a boy to school whose family says he has faced ongoing antisemitic bullying, May 17, 2024.

"I do believe that he feels that he's not alone. And it gives him the courage and the strength to keep on standing up for himself and for others. [The walk, and support offered by other families is] very helpful."

"I just need this to stop. I need to know that my son is going to school and that he's safe and that he's been taken care of."

"And that I won't get a phone call from the hospital saying something has happened."