"Students, we heard again and again, would actually report an incident of virulent antisemitism. They'd often be gaslit," Cataldo said. "It would be minimized.”

“These recommendations offer a clear, actionable playbook for state and local school leaders to create safer, more inclusive learning environments,” said state Representative Simon Cataldo, a Concord Democrat who co-chairs the commission with Velis.

“Cataldo, a former special education teacher, said: ‘What are we doing in government if we’re not ensuring that a student can read?’”

Summer updates from Beacon Hill!

School administrators and state education officials should quickly move to implement the commission’s recommendations.

“He and his fellow members met to discuss their findings in a draft report that despite extensive efforts to fight harassment of other groups, ‘those same districts in many cases, leave out the Jews,’ as Commission Co-chair Rep. Simon Cataldo (D-Concord) puts it.”

"There's a cultural issue. There's a moral issue," Cataldo said. "And that's always been the case when it comes to antisemitism. What we saw in the hearing shows us how far we have to go."

“I think it would be irresponsible of our state education system and our local districts not to give serious consideration to creating the framework and the safeguards that the bill proposes.”