Education

Concord-Carlisle school district reaches settlement to end federal inquiry into antisemitism

The district reportedly failed to adequately address antisemitic incidents on school property, prompting a federal investigation.

Concord-Carlisle schools have reached a settlement to resolve a federal investigation into antisemitism within the district. Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe

By Darin Zullo

April 16, 2026

3 minutes to read

The Concord-Carlisle Regional School District has reached an “amicable agreement” with the Department of Justice resolving its review of antisemitism and harassment in the district, according to school and federal officials.

The settlement finds no liability or wrongdoing on the district’s part but will require it to update its policies, improve its procedures for reporting and investigating harassment, expand staff training, educate students about antisemitism, and designate a “district-level compliance officer” to oversee responses to harassment, the district said in a statement Wednesday.

“Antisemitism and harassment of any kind have no place in our schools,” Superintendent Laurie Hunter said in the statement. “We take these issues seriously and have already taken important steps to strengthen how we address them, including staff training on antisemitism, expanded student education, and clearer reporting and investigation procedures. This agreement builds on that work and helps ensure we continue supporting a safe and respectful learning environment for every student.”

The district came under fire last year for repeated antisemitic incidents at its middle and high schools between 2023 and 2025, the Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday. Federal officials opened an investigation into the district in March 2025 under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Antisemitic incidents that occurred within the district included students drawing swastikas and using “Jew” as a derogatory term towards Jewish students, according to the Department of Justice. The investigation prompted the district to begin initiatives to combat antisemitism, provide employee training, and work with stakeholders.

“The Department will not tolerate antisemitic harassment of students at any level of education,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the statement. “School districts, like colleges and universities, must take prompt and effective action to address antisemitic harassment when it creates a hostile environment for Jewish students and must keep taking action until Jewish students are once again safe and welcome at their school.”

Tensions rose last June when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced that it had filed a brief alleging that the Concord-Carlisle district “failed to protect Jewish students from pervasive antisemitic harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.” The ADL said that the “alarming pattern of antisemitic bullying, slurs, threats, and retaliation” had become so pervasive that it prompted “at least one Jewish student” to leave the district to “escape the hostile climate.”

In that specific instance, the Jewish student was victim to other students giving Nazi salutes in school hallways, drawing swastikas on school property, using antisemitic slurs, and dividing themselves into teams called “Team Auschwitz” and “Team Hamas” during athletic games, according to the ADL. Rather than address the incidents, which reportedly involved at least seven different students, as indicative of a broader problem, the district “treated each incident as an isolated interpersonal conflict.”

Administrators reportedly proposed to move the Jewish student from the classroom to independent studies rather than doing so for the perpetrators. The district’s director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging was said to have downplayed the use of an antisemitic slur as a “microaggression,” according to the ADL.

“The antisemitic climate at Concord-Carlisle did not emerge overnight,” Samantha Joseph, regional director of ADL New England, said in June. “It was allowed to take root and persist.”

The organization further found that the district’s “diluted” response to these antisemitic incidents failed to measure up to the public statements they issued. After swastikas were found drawn in school bathrooms and at the high school skate park, the district reportedly waited more than three weeks to alert police and families.

“The district had multiple opportunities to address its hostile antisemitic environment and take corrective action, but failed again and again,” Jenna Statfeld Harris, senior counsel at StandWithUs Saidoff Legal, said in June. “This failure caused deep harm not only to Jewish students left unprotected from relentless harassment, but also to the broader community, including peers who learned that such bigotry was tolerated.”

Under the settlement agreement, the Department of Justice will “monitor the district’s compliance” and require Concord-Carlisle school officials to “continue to report to the public about its efforts to address antisemitism,” according to federal officials.