Philadelphia’s public school system has become an “absolute cesspool” of anti-Semitism and anti-American hatred, according to local parents, who say Gov. Josh Shapiro (D.) has “completely ignored” their pleas for help.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Philadelphia school officials have publicly defended terrorism, called for the release of convicted cop killers, claimed Israel is an “apartheid theocracy,” and denounced the United States as a “criminal Amerikan empire.” The Philadelphia school district settled a federal discrimination case with the Department of Education last year after students allegedly taunted their Jewish classmates with Nazi salutes, swastika graffiti on doors, and threats to “kill the Jews.”
Frustrated parents told the Washington Free Beaconthat they have tried to raise these issues with the governor but that his staff has done nothing in response and eventually stopped taking meetings with them.
One mother of two Philadelphia public school students told the Free Beacon that she and other concerned parents met with Shapiro staffers several times during 2023 and 2024, including with Carrie Rowe, the current head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Education.
“We have met with people in his office, seven or eight of them on a few occasions, and nothing has happened,” the mother said. “[The governor’s office] heard firsthand the horrors that are going on, and what we’ve been dealing with, and nothing has happened to address or fix it.”