The Pine Bush Central School District was established in 1938 in Pine Bush, New York, United States, and spans all of the Town of Crawford and includes part of six other townships in Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster counties. For the 2021-2022 school year, the district approved a budget of $125.8 million [1] and currently enrolls just under 5,000 students. [2]
The school district has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in March 2012 by three families alleging inaction following accusations of antisemitism and the resultant creation of a hostile learning environment. [3] [4]
The district has 7 schools.
On November 8, 2013, The New York Times ran a front-page story that detailed allegations of antisemitic bullying in the Pine Bush Central School District and a related lawsuit by the parents of three district students. There were students known to have a good relationship with the teachers and performed anti-semitic rituals almost every day after school. [4] In an earlier Times article, Philip G. Steinberg, the district's superintendent from 2008 to 2013, who, as well as two other administrators named as defendants, is Jewish, described the lawsuit as a "money grab." [4] In the days following the Times' coverage hundreds of people protested against "its portrayal of Pine Bush as a bigoted, biased community." [5] The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued a statement in support of the plaintiffs in January 2014. [6] Following a five-month long state police investigation, the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced in September, 2014, that no criminal charges would be filed against any children and "the investigation revealed no evidence that any school official had engaged in any criminal conduct." [7] On November 4, 2014, Federal District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas, presiding in White Plains, NY, denied a defense motion to dismiss the case brought on behalf of three of the five children included in the complaint. [8]
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen. This county was first created in 1683 and reorganized with its present boundaries in 1798.
Middletown is the largest city in Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains. Middletown is situated between Port Jervis and Newburgh, New York. At the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 30,345, reflecting an increase of 2,259 from the 28,086 counted in the 2010 census. The zip code is 10940. Middletown falls within the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown Metropolitan Statistical Area, which belongs to the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.
Pine Bush is a hamlet located in the Town of Crawford and adjacent to Shawangunk, New York, within Orange and adjacent to Ulster counties in the U.S. It is roughly coterminous with the 12566 ZIP code and 744 telephone exchange in the 845 area code. These both extend into adjacent regions of the Town of Shawangunk in Ulster County.. The population was 1,751 at the 2020 census.
Airmont is a village in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the state of New Jersey, east of Suffern, south of Montebello, and west of Chestnut Ridge. The population was 8,628 at the 2010 census.
Warwick is a town in the southwestern part of Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 32,027 at the 2020 census. The town contains three villages and eight hamlets.
The Thomas More Law Center is a Christian, conservative, nonprofit, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and active throughout the United States. According to the Thomas More Law Center website, its goals are to "preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage, defend the religious freedom of Christians, restore time-honored moral and family values, protect the sanctity of human life, and promote a strong national defense and a free and sovereign United States of America."
New York State Route 302 (NY 302) is a state highway in northern Orange County, New York, in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 17M north of the city of Middletown in the town of Wallkill. Its northern terminus is at a junction with NY 52 in the hamlet of Pine Bush, located within the town of Crawford.
The William Floyd School District is located in the southern area of the Town of Brookhaven on Long Island in New York. The district serves the contiguous communities of Shirley, Mastic, Mastic Beach and Moriches. The William Floyd School District is one of the larger school districts on Long Island and is named after William Floyd, one of only 56 men to sign the Declaration of Independence. The district is located on the south shore of Long Island, approximately 60 miles east of New York City, with an enrollment of 8,653 students as of 2016. William Floyd students attend five elementary schools, two middle schools, and a senior high school.
Duxbury High School is a public high school located in the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, United States, and operating in the Duxbury Public School District. The superintendent of the Duxbury Public School District is Danielle Klingaman, the assistant superintendent is Beth Wilcox and the principal of Duxbury High School is Todd Warmington. The building that houses the Duxbury Middle and High School is located at 71 Alden Street, Duxbury, MA and was newly constructed in 2014. The Duxbury High School mascot is the Dragons and its school colors are green, white, and silver.
Eric Tradd Schneiderman is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 65th Attorney General of New York from 2011 until his resignation in May 2018. Schneiderman, a member of the Democratic Party, spent ten years in the New York State Senate before being elected Attorney General. In May 2018, Schneiderman resigned his position as Attorney General after The New Yorker reported that four women had accused him of physical abuse. In 2021, Schneiderman’s law license was suspended for a year after a disciplinary proceeding where he admitted to the abusive conduct.
Pine Bush High School is the central high school for the Pine Bush Central School District, located on Route 302 in the hamlet of Pine Bush, New York, United States.
Circleville is a hamlet in the Town of Wallkill, part of Orange County, New York, United States. It is located on NY 302, around the junction with the old Goshen Turnpike, a short distance north of NY 17 and two miles (3 km) south of Bullville. It is three miles (4.8 km) northeast of Middletown.
Pine Island is a hamlet in the town of Warwick in Orange County, New York, United States. It is the largest community in the Black Dirt Region, which is famous for its "black dirt onions." It gets its name from its slight elevation over the surrounding land. In the days before the nearby Wallkill River was rerouted to control flooding, it would often be an actual island for a period in the spring.
East Ramapo Central School District is a school district in Ramapo, New York, United States. It is headquartered in the Senator Eugene Levy Dr. Jack R. Anderson Education Center.
The Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in New York's Hudson Valley, with the cities of Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Middletown as its principal cities. As of the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 679,221 The area was centered on the urban area of Poughkeepsie-Newburgh.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) is a nonprofit organization founded by Kenneth L. Marcus in 2012 to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. LDB is active on American campuses, where it, according to the organization, combats anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
New York State's Dignity for All Students Act, also known as The Dignity Act, and most commonly referred to by its acronym, DASA, is legislation in the U.S. state of New York, established to provide a school environment free of discrimination and harassment. It was signed into law by former Governor David Paterson on September 13, 2010 but was not implemented in school districts statewide until July 1, 2012. This act was first introduced to the New York State Senate in 1999 by Senator Thomas Duane. "The Act to support student’s mental health at school and during school related events. It enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy for student discrimination, harassment, intimidation, taunting and bullying.
The Lawfare Project is an American non-profit think tank and litigation fund that works to protect the human and civil rights of Jewish and pro-Israel communities worldwide. The Project funds legal actions to protect free speech and civil rights by challenging anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews.
In 2018 and 2019, reports of antisemitism in the United States was reported to have increased compared to previous years according to statistics collected by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Anti-Defamation League. These statistics include both violent antisemitic attacks on Jews and cases of harassment.
Port Jervis City School District (PJCSD) is an American school district headquartered in Port Jervis, New York. The district runs four schools, 2 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and one high school. The district's students come from Port Jervis and sections of Deerpark, including Sparrow Bush, in Orange County. It also serves sections of Forestburgh and Mamakating in Sullivan County.