
No Punishment for Students Who Lock Jewish Kid in Bathroom
The story is insane. A Jewish kid at Smithfield High School in Smithfield, R.I., was locked in a bathroom by five burly football players. They sprayed Lysol through the grate. They shouted antisemitic slurs. And they got away with it.
Their lawyer said the act was not antisemitic (a thousand exclamation points), and after they were banned from the football team for the rest of the year, the school superintendent, Dawn Bartz, reinstated them.
Can you imagine if this outcome happened to any other minority? You can’t, because it never would. There would be protests, and the students would get the harshest possible punishment, possibly life in prison with no hope of parole.

The Smithfield School Committee opened an investigation into the incident, which took place last November, and put Bartz on voluntary paid leave.
Now, finally, a small measure of justice has come to the high school. The town imposed several measures to make fighting antisemitism a real thing in the Smithfield public school system. Under the five-part agreement, the school district must do the following:
- Review its policies on harassment and update them as needed
- Train staff
- Teach students how to recognize antisemitism
- Develop a support system for students who suffer harassment
- Create a parent survey collecting data on parents’ views of a hostile environment to Jews at the school
The school system is finally being taken to task — but the football players still got away with their despicable behavior.