The School Committee released external investigator Allyson Kurker’s findings regarding claims of “antisemitism, discrimination and egregiously unprofessional conduct by one current and three former Marblehead Public Schools teachers” April 3.
According to the findings, in June 2024, the School Committee voted to retain an independent investigator to review the allegations, which Kurker began doing in October 2024. The School Committee had allotted $25,000 toward this investigation, according to previous reporting by Marblehead Weekly News.
The investigation conducted interviews with 26 individuals and analyzed nearly 450 pages of documents. Kurker wrote that there was insufficient evidence that:
• “Any party was subjected to discrimination or harassment, including antisemitism
• District personnel retaliated against parties who raised concerns about antisemitism or unprofessionalism
• District administrators ignored or were indifferent to claims of antisemitism
• District administrators favored Israel over other nations
• District personnel held parties responsible for the actions of the state of Israel
• District administrators interfered with the parties’ right to free expression.”
Two allegations were corroborated, though:
• “Written evidence corroborated that a party knowingly or negligently misrepresented facts, in violation of the staff conduct policy
• “The district violated the grievance procedure in the conduct of an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in fall 2023, where the investigation was not conducted in an adequate, fair or neutral manner.”
Kurker emphasized that the findings “are not intended to suggest that Marblehead is free of antisemitism, but rather that the specific incidents and events that I was asked to investigate did not return sufficient information to support an inference of a violation of the (non-discrimination and harassment policy).”
One Marblehead parent found the concept of there not being enough evidence very concerning.
“Now we have an investigation that’s come out and actually just says ‘not enough proof’ – so when my child comes home and says they had this happen to them, what are we going to do? Are we going to tell them there’s ‘not enough proof’? I just don’t understand that,” she said.
Yael Magen said, last summer, Jewish people consistently asked that the investigation firm would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which states that anti-Zionism is antisemitic, and that was not done.
In Article III, Kurker wrote: “It would be overreaching, however, for an external investigator to adopt a non-legally binding definition of antisemitism that has not been recognized by the town or district, or the federal or state agencies that enforce workplace discrimination laws… The decision about whether and how to further define antisemitism is rightfully left to the Marblehead community and its leaders.”
“Having an investigation firm that does not adopt our definition is like having a firm that does not believe that a husband can rape his wife,” Magen said. “That’s what we had in the 1980s. If you hire that firm and have a complaint by a wife saying ‘my husband raped me,’ if the premise isn’t there, the conclusion will never be there.”
She continued, adding that the report was “a slap in the face to every single Jewish student, parent, teacher and resident.”
“We sat here and said the one thing we want is the IHRA definition,” she said, “and it’s not because that is what we think needs to happen. It’s because that is the way Jews define antisemitism. How dare you tell us how we define antisemitism.”
Superintendent John Robidoux said that the investigation was never intended to answer if Marblehead Public Schools as an entity was antisemitic. Rather, the investigation was for specific allegations of personnel.
“I know we heard from folks earlier this morning, and they were all really happy with the results. I think the unhappiness with the results doesn’t necessarily mean that the required investigation wasn’t done properly,” he said.
He also shared that the anti-discrimination committee, which was created prior to this investigation’s conclusion, “will continue to work on identifying incidents of discrimination, racism, antisemitism and any other issues that are identified where our community members are targeted.”
