88°F
weather icon Cloudy

Jewish teen who had apparent swastika scratched onto back gets legal help

A New York City-based organization announced Monday that it’s representing a 17-year-old student who allegedly had a swastika scratched into his back last month at Clark High School.

The Lawfare Project said in a news release that the teen — who is Jewish — was wearing a yarmulke at the time of the alleged attack.

The student, who is nonverbal, attended the school with a service dog, and was pulled from class after his mother discovered the marking, according to the release.

The Lawfare Project — which takes legal action involving the rights of Jewish people worldwide — says the culprits haven’t been caught “due to the apparent absence of security cameras in the school.”

“Antisemitic hate is no longer hiding in the shadows and in the darkest corners of the internet,” Brooke Goldstein, founder and executive director of The Lawfare Project, said in the release. “To attack an autistic child in a public place shows the brazen level of hatred people will display to harm the Jewish community. Our team will work with the victim and his family to ensure that the individual or individuals responsible for this will be held accountable.”

Other organizations — including the Israeli-American Council and Anti-Defamation League — have issued statements condemning the incident.

The Clark County School District said its police department took a report about the injuries in mid-March, but an investigation found “no evidence that would indicate the origin of the injuries,” according to the statement issued earlier this month.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST