Swastika Graffiti at Barstow School Sparks Antisemitism Probe
The Barstow School in Kansas City is investigating after swastikas were discovered on three chess pieces in the campus’ high school last week, officials said.
Administrators said the school is working to determine who is responsible for the vandalism of the property in the school’s commons area, while also addressing the impact it’s had on students and families. The swastikas were discovered Aug. 21.
By Kevin Deutsch | Special to Metro Voice
Lisa Tulp, Barstow’s vice president of communications and marketing, described the incident as “an act of vandalism using unacceptable and intolerable hate speech.”
“We have not identified any student responsible and have not determined when this act occurred,” she said in an email.
The school’s safety department is investigating the incident and reviewing videotape from the area where the “graffiti” on the chess pieces was found, said Tulp. No report has been filed with police, she said
“Our investigation so far has been inconclusive; however, it remains active and ongoing,” Barstow President and Head of School Art Hall said in an Aug. 28 email to parents.
In an earlier message to parents, sent Aug. 21, Hall called the graffiti “inappropriate and offensive” and commended students for “seeing something and saying something, which allowed us to swiftly address the situation.”
In his communications with Barstow parents, Hall said “words and symbols that convey hate cannot be explained away as a ‘joke.’”
“We reminded students today to use their empathy to understand how such a message can make peers and families feel unsafe,” Hall said. He added: “Acts like this carry disciplinary consequences.”
Jennifer Marien, director of Bartow’s upper school, addressed students on Aug. 21 and “made it clear that the use of symbols considered to be hate speech is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” according to Hall.
Hall’s emails to parents did not include the fact that the graffiti incident involved the drawing of swastikas. But Tulp said the school “offered students and every family in our community the opportunity for additional dialogue and acknowledged and specifically used the word ‘swastika’ in individual responses following our community-wide email.”
“An expression of hate is not contained to one symbol, word or act,” Tulp said in an email. “Our swift community response, developed in collaboration with a diverse group of faculty and staff, was carefully considered to avoid re-harming anyone in our community or reinforcing offensive messaging. We do not tolerate any form of hate speech on campus.”
The administration is working to address the harm this behavior creates
“The administration is working to address the harm this behavior creates, and to prevent further incidents through grade-level appropriate education, speakers and learning opportunities,” she said.
After discovering the swastikas, Tulp said Barstow’s administration immediately contacted Kansas City’s Jewish Community Relations Bureau, which works to combat antisemitism.
Hall told parents the school had “engaged in positive and productive conversations with parents and community partners,” including the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council and JCRB.
“Their guidance has been valuable as we continue to process the incident and plan constructive next steps,” Hall wrote.
“We are moving forward with proactive educational programs that reinforce Barstow’s values of respect, belonging and empathy,” he added. “These efforts will help us acknowledge the harm that hate speech and symbols create, while equipping our students with the age-appropriate tools to build understanding, compassion and unity.”
Barstow has also encouraged students who want support to speak with the school’s counselors, teachers, or administrators.
Founded in 1884, Barstow teaches students in preschool through 12th grade. The school’s promotional materials say it emphasizes science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math in its curriculum and provides “the best independent school education in the region.”
Recent programming at the school has included a presentation about Passover, co-organized by Barstow’s Inclusion, Diversity + Equity department, and a traveling sukkah brought to campus in 2023, officials said. Last year, families put up a sukkah on campus for the duration of the Sukkot observance, and students were invited to lunch-and-learn sessions there, according to Tulp.
In March 2023, Holocaust survivor Judy Jacobs spoke to Barstow’s freshman class as part of their required reading of Night by Elie Wiesel, Tulp said, with all upper school students invited to attend if their schedules allowed.
Jacobs and her parents were incarcerated in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, while her grandparents and her extended family were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau and her mother’s brother died in a forced labor camp, according to the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.
Neta Meltzer, executive director of Kansas City’s Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee, said the organization was concerned about the antisemitic incident at Barstow.
This is a uniquely challenging moment for the Jewish community, as rates of antisemitic incidents shatter existing records
“This is a uniquely challenging moment for the Jewish community, as rates of antisemitic incidents shatter existing records across the country,” she said in an email. “Antisemitic incidents in area schools lend weight to feelings of uncertainty and fear that are prevalent among the Jewish community in this moment.”
“Preventing and responding to antisemitic incidents is a core element of our work, and we are ready and able to partner with The Barstow School, and with Jewish students and their families, to help navigate incidents and prevent them in the future.”
Second antisemitic incident at Barstow
The drawing of swastikas at Barstow follow an earlier antisemitic incident at the school’s annual Cultural Enrichment Festival in February 2024, during which people were heard yelling “‘Free Palestine,’ removing flags, and writing hurtful comments,” former Barstow President Shane Foster told parents in a letter at the time.
The people involved in the incident targeted a student display, placed “inappropriate” note cards in a box, and engaged “with members of the Jewish Student Union and a parent at the Israeli table in a manner that does not uphold our community standards,” said Foster, who has since retired.
Barstow apologized to families for the incident and condemned the behavior. Its investigation found that the perpetrators were two children who did not attend Barstow, officials said.
“While not illegal based on local law enforcement’s view, these actions were unquestionably inappropriate and disrupted the spirit of the festival,” Foster told parents in a follow-up letter. “These individuals will no longer be welcome on any Barstow campus.”
Asked whether the flags targeted at the festival were Israeli flags, and whether the “hurtful” written comments discussed Jews or Israel, Tulp said Barstow “did not provide information we could not confirm through our investigation, and I cannot provide any additional information now.”
Antisemitism surging across nation
Antisemitism has surged to unprecedented levels in the U.S. since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war.
AJC’s 2024 State of Antisemitism in America Report found that 77 percent of American Jews said they felt less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. because of the October 7 attacks.
Nearly six in 10 said they changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism in 2024 – a sharp increase from previous years. And one-third of American Jews in 2024 said they had been the personal target of antisemitism – in person or virtually – at least once during the preceding year.
At the same time, independent schools across the country are reporting a rise in antisemitic incidents, authorities said.
A May 2025 report by the Anti-Defamation League analyzing antisemitism in independent K-12 schools found antisemitism has become a “pressing national concern” on those campuses since Oct. 7, 2023.
The organization identified 1,162 antisemitic incidents in independent K-12 schools in 2023 and 860 in 2024.
Around 45 percent of surveyed parents reported that their children had experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the October 7 attacks. Around 32 percent said their children had experienced or witnessed problematic school curricula or classroom content related to Jews or Israel.
Antisemitic symbols like swastikas are the most common form of antisemitism reported at independent K-12 schools, the ADL found. In 2024, the organization’s audit of antisemitic incidents found that 52 percent of antisemitic incidents at independent schools involved a swastika.
Such schools “operate outside of the direct oversight of public education systems, meaning they typically have greater autonomy in shaping their curricula, policies, and disciplinary procedures, which can lead to inconsistent responses to antisemitism,” the ADL said.
The organization’s report noted that parents of Jewish students at independent schools often feel antisemitic incidents are minimized when administrators issue broad condemnations of “hate” without specifically referencing antisemitism.
“The historical exclusion of Jews from educational spaces – including elite independent schools – is a well-documented phenomenon, rooted in centuries of systemic discrimination and prejudice,” the ADL report states. “Despite significant strides towards inclusivity, Jewish students continue to face antisemitism and marginalization within independent schools today.”
Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist covering general assignment news and Jewish community issues. He regularly covers Jewish news for the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, St. Louis Jewish Light, and other publications. He has worked as a staff writer at a number of newspapers including The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, and The Riverdale Press. He also writes about Jewish issues on his Substack, After October 7
