ADL files federal complaint against Colorado school for antisemitism
The Anti-Defamation League has filed a federal complaint against Colorado's Boulder Valley School District, accusing it of failing to address severe antisemitic harassment. The complaint details a nearly two-year pattern of attacks on a Jewish student, including antisemitic remarks and a physical assault.
A student at a Colorado high school allegedly wrapped a laptop charger around a Jewish student's neck and called him an antisemitic slur, according to a June 11 complaint filed by the Anti-Defamation League.
The complaint alleges that school officials at Southern Hills Middle School failed to stop two years of antisemitic harassment against an eighth grader even after investigations concluded the student faced a hostile environment.
The Title VI complaint details a series of antisemitic incidents that culminated in the student being called a "stupid k--e" and being strangled with the laptop cord.
In April 2025, students allegedly attempted to play a game called "Jew touch tag" and said Jews were "dirty" and "contaminated," according to the complaint.
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Southern Hills Middle School in Boulder, Colorado. (Google Maps)
The laptop cord incident occurred in December 2025 when a student allegedly wrapped the cord around the Jewish student's neck while he was sitting and dragged him backward from his chair while calling him a "stupid k---."
The incident was severe enough that the Boulder Police Department was called to investigate, according to the complaint.
In April 2026, a classmate reportedly told the student "Hitler should have killed all the Jews when he had the chance." The pattern of harassment was so severe that the student stopped wearing his Star of David necklace, according to the ADL.
A Star of David necklace is shown against a dark background. (iStock)
Following the laptop cord incident, there was a safety plan and protective order put in place, but the protective order "was violated on day one," the ADL's Vice President of Litigation James Pasch told Fox News' Alicia Acuna on Tuesday.
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"Despite the family’s pleas for help to stop the harassment, the school district failed to effectively address it, a clear violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. No family should have to fight this hard to ensure a Jewish child’s safety at school, and certainly no Jewish student should face the threat of assault or harassment because of their Jewish identity," Pasch also said.
Pasch also revealed that the ADL recorded 167 antisemitic incidents in Colorado in 2025.
The ADL's complaint is requesting an apology to the child's family from the school district and a plan to coordinate antisemitism training for district students.'
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Jewish students at El Camino Real Charter High School walk out to protest antisemitic incidents in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2024. (Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group)
"When an event occurs like the one I described in a classroom that are witnessed by other students and then obviously talked about in the hallways and on the playgrounds by other student, it's incumbent on the district to send a message out that talks about what occurred and addresses the antisemitism head on, right. I understand districts can't talk about individual disciplinary issues with students but they can address underlying events of anti-Semitism that take place in their four walls and to speak out publicly against it and say this is not what district stands for and we're not going to tolerate antisemitism in our building," Pasch said.
"There's probably no more solemn obligation that a school official and officials have than to keep our children safe when they walk through those doors, right? And if there's a failure to do so because a student is being denied access to a safe education because of their Jewish identity, that makes them less safe, the entire Jewish community, let's save. And the entire community of the Boulder Valley School District more unsafe, right? And so they're obligated to step in and correct the issue," he also added.
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Fox News' Alicia Acuna and Alexandra Rego-Rahman contributed to this report.
Fox News Digital contacted the Boulder Valley School District and Boulder Police Department for additional comment.
