William Kesselman seriously considered leaving Menlo-Atherton High School during his freshman year after two significant antisemitic incidents, he told J.
He said the first occurred in September 2023 when a substitute biology teacher told him and his classmates two Holocaust jokes about burning Jews in ovens.
Then a month later, during a break between classes on Oct. 16, 2023, he said, a classmate called him a “kike” and said he hoped Hamas would kill Kesselman’s entire family.
Both incidents are included in a multi-party lawsuit filed in November by Kesselman’s mother along with five other Jewish families. Represented by the Deborah Project, the families allege that Sequoia Union High School District did little to address the “pervasive antisemitism” their children faced during the 2023-2024 school year.
J. reported the details of the lawsuit after it was filed. Now, two of the families who are plaintiffs in the suit have described their experiences to J.
The lawsuit adds Sequoia Union to a growing list of Bay Area school districts under scrutiny following incidents of antisemitism, as well as for allegations of biased anti-Israel content in classrooms since Oct. 7, 2023. The Deborah Project, which describes itself as a public interest law firm supporting the civil rights of Jews, has spearheaded a number of lawsuits on behalf of families, including suits against the Berkeley, Hayward and Mountain View-Los Altos school districts for allegedly allowing anti-Israel or antisemitic material to be taught in classrooms.
Other families have turned to different groups and firms for help. In October, a Jewish family sued the Santa Clara County Unified School District over alleged antisemitic bullying.
The Sequoia district lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, was brought by Jewish families at Menlo-Atherton and Woodside high schools, both in San Mateo County.
The Oct. 16, 2023 incident reported by Kesselman is described in detail.
“I was listening to music and hanging out near the G-wing,” began his handwritten report, viewed by J.
A classmate, who Kesselman said bullied him in the past, came up “without provocation, encircled me with his buddies and proceeded to call me a kike and said he hopes me and my entire family burn in hell, and that Hamas kills us all,” Kesselman’s incident report continued. “And then said ‘go Hamas, free Palestine. Fuck all Jews. And then the bell rang.”
The school’s administration took a different tack in its response than Kesselman expected. According to the lawsuit, administrators “blamed” Kesselman for provoking the harassment and suggested he switch classes to avoid “provoking” the other student, who was enrolled in one of his courses.
“The fact that they said it was my fault that I was harassed, that was when I realized, OK, so M-A couldn’t care less about me,” Kesselman told J.
Principal Karl Losekoot responded to the lawsuit’s claims in an email to J. He noted that while he could not answer questions about the ongoing litigation, the school has policies in place dealing with hateful behavior and antisemitism.
“Menlo-Atherton High School does not condone antisemitism, hate speech of any kind, or hate motivated behavior,” the email said. “M-A has adopted specific language and policy around hate-motivated behavior as well as adopting the US State Department’s definition of antisemitism. These policies are all outlined in our student and staff handbooks and we have communicated them to students, staff, and families.”
Losekoot added, “We also continue to design lessons that address antisemitism in the classroom …. As always, we continue to take all concerns and complaints seriously, strive to listen, and reflect on how we can better serve our diverse community.”
Sam and Andrea Kasle are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They are suing on behalf of their daughter, a former student at Woodside High School who left after her sophomore year. Sam Kasle asked that J. not share her name out of concern over “social blowback.”
“She is a social butterfly and does not want her wings ripped,” Kasle said.
Last school year, just after the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, Kasle’s daughter said her class was being taught a one-sided narrative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by world history teacher Gregory Gruszynski, according to the lawsuit.
The fact that they said it was my fault that I was harassed, that was when I realized, okay, so M-A couldn’t care less about me.
William Kesselman, Menlo-Atherton High School student
During one lesson, the lawsuit alleges, Gruszynski characterized Israel as perpetrating “wanton military violence” without providing context about the Hamas massacre that started the war. Kasle’s daughter challenged Gruszynski and asked, “Who attacked first?”
Gruszynski “reluctantly admitted” that Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the lawsuit. From that point on, Kasle’s daughter and Gruszynski had a fraught relationship in the classroom. According to the lawsuit, Gruszynski began a class in December 2023 by singling her out and “using a tone that implied” how “preposterous” it was that she didn’t consider Israel an “apartheid state.”
“He tried to use her as a useful idiot to show the class, you know, it’s ridiculous, it’s preposterous to think otherwise,” Kasle told J.
Kasle’s daughter came home from school in tears on multiple occasions, he said. He asked to see the course materials for her world history class.
“When she showed me the materials, that’s when it all clicked,” Kasle said. “She’s trying to get the truth out, and this teacher is subverting it in a very conscientious and directed way.”
Gruszynski did not respond to multiple J. emails seeking comment.
He also declined a request for a meeting last school year, said Kasle, who spent “months” emailing Gruszynski and school administrators to try to understand the source of the course materials and why some appeared to be created by Gruszynski himself without school approval, according to the lawsuit.
At first, Kasle said administrators seemed to understand why he was asking questions about the factually inaccurate course materials about Israel and how his daughter was experiencing them.
“The vice principal, the principal, the assistant to the superintendent,” Kasle said, “all of them gave a response similar to, ‘Oh, this is horrible. This should never happen to your daughter, we’re going to really look into this,’” he told J.
But nothing ever changed, he said. The students were still being tested on materials that misrepresented Israel’s history, Kasle said, and he was getting nowhere. “It took me months to realize that they weren’t going to do anything,” he said.
The administrative vice principal, Charles Velschow, suggested filing a complaint with the school following the state’s Uniform Complaint Procedure, Kasle said. Velschow declined to comment, referring J. to the law firm of Dannis Woliver Kelley, retained by the district for this case. The law firm did not respond to J.’s emailed requests for comment.
“I put in at least four, if not more, formal complaints,” Kasle told J.
The required 30-day period for UCP to respond to complaints took more than 90 days in some cases, he said, and other complaints received no response.
Unaware of any other recourse, Kasle said the next logical step was to sue the school district.
”This whole process needs to be fixed for other people,” he told J.
For his part, Kesselman chose to stay at Menlo-Atherton High School even with the lawsuit pending.
“He understands that we’re not running away from problems. We’re trying to solve them,” Margarette Ell-Kesselman, William’s mother, told J. “We’re doing our best and William is also doing his best.”
Now a sophomore, Kesselman told J. that he has good friends, joined the school’s water polo team and feels overall that “this year is going way better than last year.” The reason? He has “made up” with the boy who called him a kike and said “there’s not really any antisemitic events targeted at me.”
Despite these positive changes, Kesselman is glad the lawsuit is moving forward. He said the school’s mishandling of his complaints last school year was never adequately addressed.
“I think them getting sued is like a wake-up call,” he said.
