Dozens of students walked out of their classes on Feb. 27, with some holding Israeli flags and chanting “stop the hate,” in support of Danielle Eshed, a ninth-grader at the school, who said she was the target of an antisemitic attack by a classmate.
Ms. Eshed told KTLA News that a fellow classmate yelled antisemitic comments at her, then attacked her during class.
Some students also said that “insensitive” notes about World War II and Adolf Hitler were being passed around the classroom, according to KTLA.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, both Jewish and Muslim parents have called on the Los Angeles Unified School District board to help prevent hate speech, discrimination and threats on local campuses.
Parents said there has been a rise in bullying and insensitivity at the schools since the war began.
“He called me a dirty Jew, and then I said something out of defense,” she told KTLA. “He said he was going to beat me up, and I didn’t believe him until he got up, pushed me and started punching me repeatedly in the neck and the back.”
The school’s executive director, David Hussey, said the student involved has been disciplined, but did not elaborate.
“One is addressing the issues,” Mr. Hussey told KABC News. “Maybe some students don’t know what they’re saying and what the impacts are, so it’s educating those students and then reassuring the other students that they are safe at this school.”
El Camino Real is a charter school located within Woodland Hills; it enrolled 3,600 students in the 2022-23 school year, according to data by the California Department of Education.
