Fairfax County, just a short trip from my home in Alexandria, Virginia, is supposed to be one of the elite public school systems in America. Consider that, as you ponder this story.

Above is a photo taken of two Fairfax High School students during a meeting of the county’s Langley High School Muslim Students Association, in which they hold up a crude drawing in which the stars on the American flag are replaced with swastikas, and the message “Free Palestine!” is written in between the squiggly stripes. This took place on school property, in a sanctioned extra-curricular activity. [Supplementary questions I’d like to see answered: 1) Why are there religion-segregated activities in a high school? Isn’t allowing that inherently divisive? 2) Where is the faculty advisor?] An Asian American student leaked the photo to the public on social media, thus allowing the community to see what a bang-up job Langley was doing educating its young charges. The inflammatory image inspired pro-Palestine ( that is, pro-Hamas) students to stage a “walkout” on November 10, as students chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Rep. Tlaib’s lie to the contrary, that slogan is a call for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Displaying the wisdom and competence that public school administrators have increasingly been revealing in recent years, Langley administrators suspended the Muslim student who drew the swastikas on the U.S. flag, and also the Asian American student who revealed the spreading anti-Semitism in the high school. It’s a bit like declaring that both Israel and Hamas are at fault for the current violence in Gaza. (You know, like Barack Obama did.)

In response to the action taken against the student whistle-blower, members and allies of the local Jewish community held a protest last week at Fairfax County Public Schools’ Gatehouse headquarters, which the protesters dubbed “Hatehouse.”

This wasn’t the only anti-Semitic episode in the school system this month. Last week, teens at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax demonstrated to the chant of “Long live Hamas!” Though parents who witnessed the anti-Jewish chanting called on the school to intervene, the administrators would not, citing “free speech.” (Students do not have free speech rights on school grounds and when the speech disrupts the educational process.)

Late in October, Jewish senior Yakov Schwartz led a group of six fellow students at Woodson High School carrying two small Israeli flags to the football field, where about 250 students organized by the Muslim Students Association rallied against Israel. Muslim students tried to grab the flags, and a mob of anti-Israel students surrounded the handful of Jewish students. Schwartz says that decision at Langley to punish the whistleblower typifies the retaliation school district officials take against Jewish students who complain about about anti-Semitism. “The student who drew the swastika flag not only threatened Jewish students but he also defaced the flag of his country. It’s a disgrace to our flag, our country, and its people,” Schwartz says, adding that the safety and security of Jewish students is being pointedly ignored.

As if to make Schwartz’s point, when a small group Jewish students chanted “Free the hostages!” across the street from the “walkout” in which about 150 students employed Rep. Tlaib’s favorite chant and displayed a “Peace for Palestine” sign with two swastikas scrawled on the back, a Langley High School official ordered the Jewish students to “stop chanting things that will instigate the other side to chant even more violent things like, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’”

The Fairfax Public Schools have allowed this toxic environment to fester for several years, says Rebecca Schgallis, co-founder of the group United Against Antisemitism. Parents have expressed their concerns and administrators have refused to act. “Fairfax County Public Schools has emboldened students to become even more aggressive in their open antisemitism where they explicitly express support for Hamas and include swastikas in their signage,” she told reporters. “Jewish students have been threatened at these walkouts, and yet FCPS is falsely claiming to the community that they are peaceful and orderly. When Jewish students and their allies protest against antisemitism, they have their own right to free speech and rights outlined in the Student Rights and Responsibilities violated.”

It seems clear that Fairfax County’s educators lack either the courage or competence to control this situation, and have allowed the problem to become unmanageable by being fearful of accusations of “Islamophobia” if they prohibited anti-Israel messages and rhetoric at the school. This, in turn, means that school administrators lack the judgement and skills to be trusted as educators….and this is supposed to be one of the best school districts in the country.