(Seattle, WA — March 19, 2025) – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened for investigation a federal Title VI complaint filed by StandWithUs Saidoff Legal against the Lake Washington School District (LWSD), which the complaint alleges has ignored and enabled rampant antisemitism. LWSD is located in King County, Washington, east of Seattle.
The complaint outlines multiple incidents of hostility experienced by the district’s Jewish students—including threats, slurs, and biased classroom content. Despite multiple reports from students and parents, LWSD has failed to address the systemic issue, allowing the hostile environment to persist.
StandWithUs requested OCR’s intervention to ensure the district upholds its legal responsibilities to protect Jewish students and create a safe learning environment.
The Title VI complaint details numerous documented incidents of anti-Jewish bias and bigotry, including:
· Threats of violence and physical assaults against Jewish students;
· Antisemitic slurs—such as “dirty Jew” and “kike”—against Jewish students;
· Use of antisemitic classroom lessons and curricula, approved by school leadership;
· Disruptive, antisemitic protests during the school day organized by non-student, off-campus organizations; and
· Blatant disregard by district leadership of Jewish students’ fear and lack of equal educational access.
“It is no surprise that a hostile environment was able to proliferate within the Lake Washington School District when looking at its leaders’ lack of remedial action in the face of clearly reported antisemitic harassment and discrimination,” said Jenna Statfeld Harris, Senior Counsel and K-12 Specialist at StandWithUs Saidoff Legal. “This is a dereliction of the district’s duty to protect Jewish students and ensure the entire school community has equal access to a safe learning environment. We are confident that the Department of Education will come to the same conclusion and remedy the situation.”
ABOUT STANDWITHUS
StandWithUs is an international, non-partisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism. StandWithUs empowers and energizes students and communities with leadership training and educational programs on hundreds of college campuses, high schools, and middle schools. StandWithUs informs through social media, print and digital materials, films, weekly newsletters, and missions to Israel.
StandWithUs takes legal action through StandWithUs Saidoff Legal.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and offices throughout the U.S., Israel, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. For the last thirteen years, StandWithUs has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator and GuideStar, two charity watchdog groups that assess over a million charities in the United States. This puts StandWithUs in the top 3% of charities ranked for their transparency and accountability.
