{"id":37251,"date":"2025-02-04T08:54:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T14:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37251"},"modified":"2025-02-04T12:54:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T18:54:43","slug":"bill-seeks-to-curb-antisemitism-in-schools-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37251","title":{"rendered":"Bill seeks to curb antisemitism in schools, universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraska school boards and postsecondary educational institutions would be required to develop and adopt a policy addressing antisemitism and other forms of discrimination under a proposal considered by the Education Committee Feb. 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Brian Hardin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB538, introduced by Gering Sen. Brian Hardin, would require school and postsecondary boards to adopt an antisemitism and antidiscrimination policy prohibiting discrimination against students or school employees based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, religion or marital status.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the bill, a policy must guarantee equal access to educational programs, classes, guidance counseling and financial assistance services. A policy also must ensure that cases of harassment and discrimination, including antisemitism, are addressed equitably.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To effectively monitor and investigate cases of discrimination, antisemitism and harassment, the Commissioner of Education would be required to appoint an individual to act as the Title IV coordinator at the state Department of Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, Hardin said, there has been an uptick in instances of antisemitism in K-12 schools, colleges and universities. Places of learning should ensure students and employees can feel safe and respected regardless of their religious or ethnic background, he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis [LB538] is about ensuring that all students and educators in Nebraska have the right to learn and work in an environment free from hatred, harassment and prejudice,\u201d Hardin said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam Beren testified in support of the bill on behalf of the Combat Antisemitism Movement. <\/span>Jewish students have filed 200 Title IV complaints with the U.S. Department of Education since the Hamas attack, he said, with little resolution. Implementing Title IV at the state level could enhance the likelihood of resolving complaints, he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents want to have a place where they know that the issues that they\u2019re confronting will be addressed,\u201d Beren said. \u201cIf they aren\u2019t going to be addressed on the federal level\u00a0 \u2014 which hopefully they will be \u2014 they can be addressed at the state level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Noah Lederman, a Jewish student who attends Columbia University, also supported the proposal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, Lederman said, several protests took place at Columbia University regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which disrupted classes and obstructed access to university facilities. Many students and protesters expressed antisemitic sentiments through their words and signs directed at Jewish students, he said, yet they faced no significant consequences for their actions,.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis sends a dangerous message that overtly racist behavior is acceptable as long as it\u2019s only targeting Jews,\u201d Lederman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB538 and the committee took no immediate action on it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraska school boards and postsecondary educational institutions would be required to develop and adopt a policy addressing antisemitism and other forms of discrimination under a proposal considered by the Education Committee Feb. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[280],"class_list":["post-37251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-sen-brian-hardin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LB538Hardin2-3-25a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37264,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37251\/revisions\/37264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}