House Republicans on Wednesday pressed the leaders of three major K-12 school districts about whether they’re taking strong enough action to root out antisemitism on their campuses.

The leaders of districts in New York City; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Berkeley, California, condemned antisemitism and acknowledged their schools have experienced a rise in anti-Jewish hate incidents since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. But they insisted they’ve responded appropriately —  investigating allegations, suspending students, disciplining teachers and moving to better educate students about Jewish history, among other measures.

GOP lawmakers on the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education were not satisfied when the school leaders said vaguely they had taken disciplinary action against educators accused of fueling antisemitism on campuses. 

Several House Republicans criticized New York City schools Chancellor David Banks for removing, but not firing, the principal of Hillcrest High School in Queens. A teacher at the school who attended a pro-Israel rally was reportedly forced to lock herself in an office as a mob of pro-Palestinian student protesters tried to push their way into her classroom.

Some students were suspended and the principal was reassigned, Banks said. 

“We removed the principal of that school for lack of leadership and oversight,” Banks said. “I don't know how to make it much clearer. I condemn clearly what happened at Hillcrest.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said the school leaders were providing “lip service, but a lack of enforcement, a lack of accountability.”

Banks said the former principal, Scott Milczewski, now works under the deputy chancellor but could not recall his title. According to reports, Milczewski wrote in a letter to school staff and families in December he accepted a position as director of teacher development and evaluation.

“How can Jewish students feel safe at New York City public schools when you can't even manage to terminate the principal of open-season-on-Jews high school?” Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., asked Banks. “ … How can Jewish students go to school knowing that he is still on your payroll?”

Banks defended the principal’s transfer by arguing that every employee in the school system has due-process rights, which drew laughter from Williams.

Montgomery County Board of Education President Karla Silvestre said her district has taken disciplinary action against some teachers but has not fired any. She said they’ve been warned they could be terminated for any future incidents.

“So you allow them to continue to teach hate,” responded Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., the subcommittee’s chairman.

Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley United School District, told lawmakers state law prevented her from  disclosing whether any teachers have been fired there over antisemitic incidents but said, “When an investigation shows that one of our educators has crossed the line, we take appropriate action.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced Tuesday it has opened an investigation into a complaint that the Berkeley Unified School District has failed to address “severe and persistent” bullying and harassment of Jewish students.” Ford Morthel said she’s confident the inquiry will show the district has responded appropriately.

One of the witnesses testifying Wednesday, Emerson Sykes, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that firing educators was not always the answer.

“Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act] says that the schools must act when there's a hostile educational environment,” he said. “ … It doesn't say that someone must be fired. 

“Firing may be appropriate in certain circumstances, but I think we need to think about how we can address antisemitism, change hearts and minds, make children safe without only looking to the most punitive tool in our toolbox,” Sykes continued.

That drew a fiery response from Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich.

“Your ability to tolerate this behavior is completely unacceptable,” she told Sykes. “And sometimes you do need to use the stick because disincentives work.”

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., also pressed Ford Morthel on a curriculum about the Israel-Hamas war being taught in some classes since the war began. 

Kiley said he learned one slide shown to students said, “For some Palestinians, ‘from the river to the sea,’ is a call for freedom and peace.”

Asked if she thought the slide was appropriate, Ford Morthel said, “We definitely believe that it's important to expose our students to a diversity of ideas and perspectives.” Many Jews believe the phrase — which has been chanted in some pro-Palestinian protests — endorses the killing of Jews in Israel.

“You put this on a slide in the classroom and then students go around the the halls saying it,” Kiley said. “I don't think there's anything surprising about that.”

Earlier in the hearing, Ford Morthel said she believed the phrase was antisemitic when it called for the elimination of Jews in Israel but added that it has different meanings to different people.

The hearing was reminiscent of one in December, in which House Republicans grilled the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology over antisemitic incidents reported on their campuses since the war began.  In tense questioning by Stefanik, all three presidents failed to explicit say that calls by students for the genocide of Jews violated school policy. Two of them were soon out of a job.

Bean referenced the earlier hearing Wednesday. 

“Just like some college presidents before you that sat in the very same seats, they also in many instances said the right thing, but then we watch the TV monitors and America watched the monitors of their campuses on fire with hatred, really reversing everything they said that they're protecting students,” Bean told the school district leaders.

Democrats on the subcommittee, too, condemned antisemitism and said more must be done to fight it at schools. But they said there also have been more Islamaphobic incidents.  

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, the top Democrat on the panel, criticized Republicans for not condemning the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where antisemitic slogans were chanted -- as well as former President Donald Trump for saying the rally had some “very fine people on both sides,” for, according to his former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, once saying Adolf Hitler “did some good things” and for dining at Mar-a-Lago with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

“If my colleagues care about antisemitism, they would condemn and denounce these comments from the leader of their party,” she said.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., argued educators should simultaneously combat antisemitism, Islamophobia, sexism and racism. 

“We must fight hate in all its forms,” Bowman said, adding that a lack of statutes in the Capitol honoring Black Americans was evidence that he works “in an institution that teaches hate.”