Security measures such as cameras are in place to prevent further vandalism at Dos Pueblos High School, where a swastika was discovered on a pole in the stadium.
A custodial team removed the swastika immediately at the Goleta campus, and the investigation continues.
“While we have not determined the perpetrator, Santa Barbara Unified condemns this hateful act in the strongest possible terms,” said Ed Zuchelli, chief of communications at Santa Barbara Unified School District.
“Several security measures are in place in an effort to prevent future vandalism and keep students safe,” Mr. Zuchelli told the News-Press on Thursday.
“We have security cameras in place throughout the campus and four full-time campus security assistants who regularly patrol the campus during school hours,” he said. “Due to the large campus and multiple entry points on evenings and weekends, we also rely on public users of the space to say something if they see something suspicious.”
There is also a school resource officer — a Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputy — assigned to Dos Pueblos. (The Sheriff’s Office handles law enforcement matters in Goleta.)
Mr. Zuchelli stressed Santa Barbara Unified opposes anti-Semitic acts and will continue to educate students and the community in combating any and all acts of bias and hate. “If you see or hear anything, please report it to school site leaders.”
The discovery of the swastika comes as hateful anti-Semitic fliers were distributed in the Isla Vista/UCSB area.
“In general, seeing such a string of events in such a short period of time is unsettling and disheartening,” said Tessa Veksler, a UCSB student and a Jewish leader at the university.
Miss Veksler, a collegiate senator for UCSB’s College of Letters and Sciences, said about 400 to 500 fliers with anti-Semitic content were distributed on Tuesday.
“The fliers contained Holocaust denial and common anti-Semitic tropes,” she said.
Six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime and its allies during the Holocaust, prior to the regime’s defeat in World War II.
“It is important to acknowledge that anti-Semitism happens on all ends of the political spectrum,” Miss Veksler said. “I think it is difficult not to see a pattern in the rise in anti-Semitic attacks, but … we don’t know who distributed these things.”
“The Jewish community has come together in a strong and empowering way,” said Miss Veksler, who’s co-president of UCSB’s Students Supporting Israel and campus liaison on UCSB’s Chabad board. “It is important to shine light on the incredible response from the Jewish community and non-Jewish community to be proactive supporters.”
Rabbi Evan Goodman of Santa Barbara Hillel, which serves Jewish students at UCSB and in Isla Vista, said, “All of these anti-Semitic flyers, graffiti and literature are horrible and create a sense of discomfort, unease and threat in the community and need to be condemned by the entire community, not just the Jewish community.”
He also commented on the swastika.
“As a parent of two students who graduated from Dos Pueblos, that incident especially pains me,” Rabbi Goodman told the News-Press. “These events are extremely visible.”
Rabbi Goodman added, “There was an event on campus at UCSB that resulted in a class that had many Jewish students being unable to meet due to the threat to their safety, and that is far more concerning to me.”
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
