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A SHOCKING (and lengthy) report from The Free Press earlier this week revealed antisemitic attacks on Jewish students at Yorktown High School in the wake of the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.

As outlined in The Free Press coverage, Jewish students at Yorktown High School were mocked, threatened, and chased, but school officials refused to aquequately address their desperate requests for help.

Here are the six most disturbing details at Yorktown High School outlined in the coverage:

1. A student allegedly tried to pull a Jewish student’s kippah from his head. After another student used an antisemitic slur against him, he reportedly began hiding his kippah beneath a baseball cap.
    
2. A Jewish student said she was chased because she was Jewish. This was presented as identity-based intimidation — not merely an argument about Israel or Gaza.
    
3. Students were allegedly told they belonged in a gas chamber. Others reportedly heard that “Hitler should have finished the job,” alongside Holocaust jokes and Nazi salutes.
    
4. School leaders reportedly issued warnings but “almost never” imposed consequences. The article says Yorktown’s principal and other administrators repeatedly failed to follow through after saying antisemitic harassment would not be tolerated.
    
5. State investigators reportedly found a systemic failure — not a handful of isolated incidents. According to the article, a 39-page Virginia attorney general’s summary concluded that APS failed to correct a broader hostile environment affecting Jewish students.
    
6. Investigators reportedly found grounds to believe APS broke anti-discrimination laws. The attorney general’s Office of Civil Rights allegedly concluded there was “reasonable cause” to believe APS violated state and federal law and was “deliberately indifferent” to the hostile environment at Yorktown.

Local news site ARLnow — rarely known for digging past the headlines — published this story almost two weeks ago about the new principal appointed at Yorktown High School for “confidential” reasons after principal Kevin Clark’s unexpected departure.

Clark was the principal during the wave of antisemitic attacks on Jewish students outlined in The Free Press coverage.

ARLnow’s Dan Egitto and Ryan Cole parroted the company line from Arlington Public Schools:

APS administrators did not say where Clark is going or why he is leaving. His name was not mentioned in a statement to families about Loft’s arrival yesterday (Thursday).

“Because this is a confidential personnel matter, APS cannot comment further on the circumstances surrounding this leadership change,” Christina Arpante, interim assistant superintendent of school and community relations, told ARLnow. “Our focus remains on supporting students, staff and families and ensuring a smooth and successful start to the school year under Ms. Loft’s leadership.”

Arpante said that School Board members approved the changes as part of their consent agenda last night (Thursday).

“Personnel actions on the consent agenda were approved as part of a single motion and were not discussed individually in public session,” she said.The Arlington School Board — a hive of left-wing activism masquerading as governance — made the personnel decision without public notice.

Longtime readers of these regular updates know APS Superintendent Francisco Durán and the School Board use the term “APS values” as a shield against accountability.

I’m sure they’ll trot out this phrase once again in the coming days and weeks.

But “APS values” are meaningless if they protect administrators instead of students.

Arlington parents deserve the complete findings, a public accounting of what happened at Yorktown High School, and an explanation of why school leaders reportedly failed to act.

The School Board and Superintendent Durán must release the facts, answer for APS’s response, and explain what they are doing to ensure no Jewish student in Arlington is ever abandoned this way again.

You can contact members of the Arlington School Board here and/or Superintendent Durán’s office here to express your concerns.