School officials in Groton respond after swastika discovered in middle school bathroom – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

GROTON, MASS. (WHDH) – Officials at a middle school in Groton are investigating after a swastika was found in a bathroom.

The district’s superintendent said that on Monday, inside the Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School, an eighth grade student found the swastika on a bathroom wall and reported it to a principal.

“It happened during the lunch period – the custodians clean the bathrooms several times during the day and the protocol is if they should find graffiti such as that, that they should notify the principal,” said Dr. Laura Chesson, the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District Superintendent. “So that wasn’t reported earlier in the day, nor was it reported the day before.”

The discovery occurred at the very same school that maintains a Holocaust Remembrance display by its entrance, with coins on the memorial representing someone who died in the Holocaust.

“They learn everything about words matter and the power of our words,” Chesson said. “We’ve been working on acceptance, belonging, community.”

But since the terrorist attack on Israel, the Anti-Defamation League explains:

“Here in New England, we have seen a rise in school-based incidents, including swastikas defacing classrooms and restrooms, as well as many incidents of harassment and vandalism in public spaces,” the organization said in a statement.

The ADL has reported that anti-Semitic incidents have spiked since Oct. 7 to 629, up from 166 during the same time last year.

One Groton resident, now a Holocaust educator, spoke with 7NEWS about the incident, sharing a black and white photo of her relatives who she says were killed in Poland in 1941.

“They were rounded up and my great-grandparents were murdered almost immediately in the great synagogue fire by the Nazis, so these stories have to be hold,” she said.

The individual said she understands all too well what a swastika means and wants others to learn as well.

“It’s a symbol of hate, so to see it anywhere is really disturbing and what’s going on in our world now is really frightening,” she said.

School officials said they had notified parents of the incident and that surveillance footage was being reviewed as they continue to investigate.

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