Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has shown it can speak with clarity when it wants to. After major fraud schemes were exposed in Minnesota, the district sent a message to families saying it “stands firmly” with Somali students and declaring “solidarity,” while stressing that threats and hate “will not be tolerated” and directing families to reporting tools and language-access supports.
After the massive fraud was exposed in Minnesota's Somali community, @SeaPubSchools sent said the district "stands firmly with our Somali students, families, staff, and community partners."
After Oct 7, the district said "the situation is complex" & talked about Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/7rYWo1nls3
— Ari Hoffman 🎗 (@thehoffather) December 8, 2025
That moral certainty vanished after Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists murdered, raped, and tortured more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250. Instead of acknowledging that atrocity plainly, SPS told families the “situation is complex” and “emotionally and politically charged,” then paired antisemitism with Islamophobia and circulated resources that, in practice, tilted toward the Palestinian narrative.
The contrast is hard to miss. When Somali families are the focus, SPS offers unambiguous solidarity and belonging. When Jewish and Israeli families are in crisis, the district retreats into “complexity” and effectively creates a moral equivalence between innocent civilians slaughtered in a surprise attack on a Jewish holiday and the fanatical terrorists who carried it out. Oct. 7 shook Jewish communities worldwide to their core. SPS could have acknowledged that pain directly without taking a position on every dispute in Middle East politics. It chose not to.
That ambiguity helped set the tone for what Jewish students and staff would face in the months that followed. SPS insists antisemitic acts will not be tolerated, yet since Oct. 7, the district has been rocked by antisemitic incidents and repeatedly appeared unable, or unwilling, to respond with urgency and clarity. Teachers displayed terrorist posters in classrooms. Jewish students were harassed and bullied. Students walked out of class to protest Israel while chanting for the death of Jews around the world. One family is now suing the district, alleging their daughter was trapped in a classroom by a Muslim student group.
If SPS wants to be trusted as a district that protects all students, it needs to stop sounding like it has two moral playbooks. The district does not need to “solve” the Middle East to speak plainly about terrorism, grief, and fear, or to make unmistakably clear that Jewish students will be protected as vigorously as any other group.
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