On January 1st, Islander Middle School (IMS) on Mercer Island was defaced with antisemitic and racist imagery. The Mercer Island Police Department identified two 16-year-old suspects, who were later caught in mid-January. Instead of facing hate crime charges, the King County Prosecutor’s Office placed them in a court-led diversion program aimed at helping them learn from their actions.
IMS co-principal MaryJo Budzius made a morning announcement on Monday, January 6th. “This kind of hate has no place at Islander Middle School,” she said to the students. “Our school is a place where everyone deserves to feel safe, included, and respected. That’s what we believe as a school, and that’s what I know many of you believe as well.”
Although there is no indication a student at the school was associated with the crime, the school wanted to make it clear that such behavior goes against the school’s values.
According to an email sent by Superintendent Fred Rundle, IMS is enhancing supervision, educational initiatives and staff discussions. They implemented a school-wide social studies lesson on the swastika’s significance using sources from the ADL, a renewed “No Place for Hate” club and hosted another assembly sponsored by the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
When the photos of the suspects were released, Mercer Island community members posted and shared them.
“We are seeing hate everywhere right now. No community is immune to this,” said deputy mayor Dave Rosenbaum. “Although what happened was terrible, it is inspiring how the community stood up.”
In response to the vandalism, StandWithUs, a Jewish advocacy group, stepped in to offer educational resources. Regional director Randy Kessler emphasized the organization’s focus on combating antisemitism through education.
“Our goal is not just to respond to these incidents, but to prevent them from happening in the first place by educating those who have the power to influence younger people,” he said.
Since the rise in antisemitic incidents after October 7, 2023, StandWithUs has shifted its focus from direct work with school students to support the Jewish community at large starting with educators. Kessler reached out to IMS administrators, offering to help with professional development for teachers on addressing antisemitism and educating about Jewish identity.
“Although nothing confirmed has been arranged between StandWithUs and IMS so far, what I was happy to see was the responsiveness to my outreach from the school administrators,” Kessler said. “They responded not only very quickly but also with great effort, clearly prioritizing opportunities for students to learn from this, and that was appreciated.”
