Overview
- Smithfield’s investigation earlier this month found “inappropriate conduct,” and the superintendent initially said the implicated football players would be benched for the rest of the season.
- The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center report that five players were later reinstated, with the freshman victim seeing them suited up at practice on Oct. 22.
- Alliance officials say their interviews indicate five seniors locked a Jewish freshman in a bathroom, sprayed Lysol through a grate, and yelled antisemitic slurs at him.
- Superintendent Dawn Bartz issued a one-sentence response that the disciplinary process has concluded and declined to share details, as the district also brought in the Holocaust education center for mandated training that met with involved students.
- The Jewish groups, joined by the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias, seek an apology, staff professional development, and anti-bias education for students, citing 30 antisemitic incidents reported in Rhode Island so far this year.