MARBLEHEAD — The Task Force Against Discrimination discussed complaints of harassment and discrimination involving adults in the town’s school district at its meeting on Thursday.
At approximately 7 p.m., Task Force member Chris Bruell said parents of children in the school district received an email from interim Superintendent Theresa McGuinness stating, “We (the district) have multiple formal complaints of harassment and discrimination from interpersonal disputes among adults working for the district.”
He said the district has “attempted to investigate the claims internally, but the investigators themselves have been subjected to accusations of being conflicted.”
Bruell said that at the School Committee meeting on June 20, there will be a vote to hire an independent investigator to look into all of the complaints that have been made and determine their merit.
Additionally, Police Chief Dennis King said there have been “slap tags” placed on a sign at the Jewish Community Center and a sign by the path going up to the high school.
Slap tags are a form of graffiti and vandalism placed on public or private property, King said.
“They can do it quickly and they can hit lots of areas,” he said.
King described the slap tag at the Jewish Community Center as an act of antisemitism. He said the vandalism depicted messages “in and around the conflict in Palestine.”
He said the Police Department is currently investigating the incident.
“Hopefully, we will be able to identify the person or people responsible,” King said.
King also described an incident of vandalism at a porta-potty at Tower Elementary School, which had language written on it “that could be understood as antisemitic.” He said the investigation is also ongoing.
Before that writing was discovered, King said the department arrested two adults who were then charged with vandalism, hate crimes, and assault after they allegedly vandalized a “pro-Israel” lawn sign that resulted in a confrontation with a resident.
King said the two adults who were arrested are not residents of the town and did not have any prior record of this type of activity.
He said that as far as he knows, Marblehead was not specifically targeted.
King said that he also works as one of the chiefs of the Anti-Defamation League’s advisory committee.
“We are, again, seeing a rise of antisemitic activity,” he said.
