About 300 Jews and Israelis gathered on Friday in the Toronto suburbs to escort an Israeli child to school. The Israeli child has been suffering from bullying and antisemitic harassment by Muslim children at school. Despite his parents' complaints, the school administration refuses to take action against the bullies and avoids opening an investigation.
The Israeli family, fearing for the child's safety, sought the support of the local Jewish community. Many attended what turned out to be the "community support walk" to march with him from their homes in North York to the local school, supervised by the Toronto District School Board.
The boy's mother, Adi Cohen, told the many escorts that the first incident occurred in November 2023 when her son, was surrounded by three children in the schoolyard, who "pushed him and said they wanted to 'do to him what Hamas did to Israel.'"
Cohen added that her son reported that the administration saw the incident and intervened, but told the Israeli boy that they did not hear what the Muslim students said to him. The Jewish boy returned to the yard and was harassed again. The Muslim students continued to threaten him and harass him until the teacher intervened again.
Cohen said she filed a complaint with the police the next day and later met with the principal and vice-principal and complained about the antisemitic incidents committed against her son. She said the school eventually took the side of the perpetrators but the district administration supervisor listened to her son's side after being sent to the school.
Despite all efforts, the bullying didn't cease. In December, Cohen's son was assaulted on the school's soccer field. Cohen said that over the past 6 months, the incessant harassment has been going on with the same children using derogatory terms and obscene gestures at her son.
The climax was Muslim students spitting, and throwing sticks and stones at her son. Even before the latest incident, the Cohen family hired lawyers in March to file a lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board and the school's administration.
The school's principal sent a letter to parents addressing the allegations. The letter claims the school is taking this incident very seriously as they investigate the allegations and take the previous incidents into account. The principal wrote that the students' safety is the school's top priority and every student deserves to feel safe and welcome at the school.
And this is not the only case in Canada. In the city of Fredericton, a 14-year-old Israeli girl was assaulted two weeks ago by a Muslim student at her school who viciously beat her in the head and face, causing her cuts, "as revenge for what Israel is doing to Palestinian children in Gaza." According to reports, the Muslim student jumped the Israeli girl unprovoked and none of the bystanders intervened.