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"[A] toxic environment was allowed to build [at the school]."

"This action is for assault, humiliation, discrimination, and other aspects to be named requiring compensation of general damages, declaratory judgement."

Mike Murphy, lawyer representing Shaked Tsurkan, Israeli-Jewish schoolgirl

 

"The plaintiff states the first attack and second attack happened because she is Israeli and/or Jewish."

"Since October 7, 2023, the date of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the plaintiff has experienced blatant antisemitism at LHHS [Leo Hayes High School, Fredericton, New Brunswick]."

Statement of Claim 

Shaked Tsurkan suffered black eyes, scratches, cuts and bruises after being attacked near her Fredericton high school on April 30, 2024, in what the family claims was an antisemitic assault sparked by the Israel-Gaza war. (Photo courtesy of the Tsurkan family)

 

A Fredericton domiciled family is taking a high-school student to court. The sued student's family is included in the claim, as is the district education council, reflecting an assault that occurred in April when their daughter -- another student at the high school -- was assaulted and beaten by the student they've brought a lawsuit against, solely for her Jewishness in a high school where an "antisemitic environment" exists.

Filed in the Court of King's Bench on September 6, the lawsuit lists Shaked Tsurkan as the plaintiff, represented by her father and litigation guardian, Eli Tsurkan. The family had discussed the situation in May, the month following the assault that took place on April 30 when they met with the provincial premier Blaine Higgs over the incident.

The Anglophone School District West District Education Council, along with the student, as well as another student who witnessed the assault and two "unknown parties", identified as the alleged assailant's parents and a third unknown party who witnessed the assault have all been named in the lawsuit. The complainant, Shaked Tsurkin, was 14 years of age at the time of the assault.

Shaked was aggressively confronted by the other student who grabbed her arms while they were in the school hallway, and when the plaintiff pushed the defendant in self-defence, it caused her hijab to become loose. The principal intervened in the physical altercation, ordering the two to separate. Shortly afterward, the plaintiff and her boyfriend left the school and walked to a nearby store.

 

There the girl was confronted again, and attacked by the other student "repeatedly battering her" in the parking lot of a sports complex, resulting in injuries occurring. "Unknown Party 3" witnessed the attack and accosted the plaintiff soon after. A video of the resulting altercation was then shared widely online, causing the girl to be humiliated, states the claim.

 

Video taken by a student bystander shows Israeli teenager Shaked Tsurkan, 14, being beaten near her Fredericton N.B. high school on April 30 while the assailant, wearing a pink hoodie, punches her about the head and face. (Submitted photo)

The video, shot by another student and then widely circulated, shows Tsurkan being jumped from behind by another student, thrown to the ground, and punched repeatedly by an attacker whom the Jewish girl identified as an older female Muslim student wearing a pink hoodie that Tsurkan said hid her hijab.

 

As injuries were caused, resulting in fear of returning to school, the Jewish girl missed five days of school attendance. When she did return, school staff advised here to use the teachers' washroom, to arrive late for classes, not to walk alone in the school hallways, and not to leave the building for the duration of the day. The aggressor-student was suspended for five days.

"We were kind of scared because I had already moved to high school, and there was a bigger community of Muslim people, that I know they’re pro-Palestinians, and they support them, and they tried to talk to school [staff] and ask them what can they do because… it’s a big deal."

"It’s not like middle school where they are still young there. In high school, they are like Grade 12 and they support Palestine, and I’m just in Grade 9, and I’m new in this school, and I’m the only one (Israeli), so I was really careful at first."

"I don’t want anything like this to happen again, because it’s just terrible. I want the school to understand that it’s not okay, because they are still saying it was my fault that I went outside, and I should have not gone outside… so they are blaming me about what happened at the school."

Shaked Tsurkan

Fredericton parents Eli and Michal Tsurkan speak with Premier Blaine Higgs at the New Brunswick legislature in May. Photo by Andrew Waugh/Brunswick News /pmc

Becoming the subject of antisemitic rumours linked to political issues reflecting the Gaza conflict had an understandably deleterious psychological effect on the young Jewish high school student. She was also profoundly affected that a homemade Israeli flag she brought to school as part of a class assignment was destroyed by other students. Additionally students and a teacher took part in a pro-Palestinian walkout at the school.

All of which, pointed out the lawsuit, had the effect of causing other Jewish or Israeli students to conceal their Jewish identities in the hope of avoiding similar persecution. In May, a 16-year-old girl was arrested, linked to the April 30 altercation, according to Fredericton Police. Police spokesperson stated that charges of assault and uttering threats were recommended.

"They were sent to the Crown who would decide to the next course of action, which could be diversion", spokesperson Sonya Gilks clarified.

"[The school is making this out to have nothing to do with antisemitism, claiming it to be a] run-of-the-mill high school dispute."

"The school doesn’t want problems. They want everything to be kept quiet. Maybe they’re afraid of the larger Arab population who would cause problems."

"They don’t want us to talk about it. They want us to drop it. But we won’t stay quiet. We can’t. We don’t accept it."

Michal Tsurkan

Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton, N.B. Photo by Twitter