PINE BUSH – The lawsuit continues against the Pine Bush School District and some of its officials past and present, alleging that the district's response to alleged incidents of anti-Semitism — including swastikas drawn in notebooks, on play equipment, and even on a girl — was "grossly inadequate" and tinged with "deliberate indifference."

From what was said at a hearing in July, it appears that federal Judge Kenneth Karas has already formed a negative opinion as regards the school district. Certainly the district's attempt to have the case dismissed has not succeeded.

That might be inevitable considering that both Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Federal District Attorney Preet Bharara, weighed in on the case... Cuomo by using Pine Bush as an example of what he wanted to see eradicated in the state, Bharara by setting a full blown civil rights' investigation in motion.

For many in the district this seemed like wielding a couple of bulldozers to crack a walnut. Parents and community members were outraged, and many insisted that there was no anti-Semitism, or racism either, in Pine Bush School District. Others, however, noted that there was and they had experienced it.

Former Superintendent of Schools Phil Steinberg, who was in charge of the Pine Bush School District from 2008 to 2012, testified that it did exist.

"I can honestly say there have not only been anti-Semitic slurs, there have been racial slurs," he said in his court deposition for the case. "Unfortunately, with 5,700 children, children are going to do inappropriate things. And that's why we are in education, to correct those things."

Steinberg also said that the problem was not going to be easy to correct.

"The issue is not three students doing it all the time; the question is if you have thirty students doing it," he said. "How do you undo the years of inbred prejudice?"

One point that became clear in court testimony was that the Pine Bush School District did not keep any record of incidents of bullying, racist acts or words. While Joan Carbone, now the Superintendent of Schools and then the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, maintained that reports from either students or parents of anti-Semitism were infrequent, it became clear that the district refrained from inflicting its most extreme punishment, suspension from school, for any of the acts that were reported. Moreover, principals at the schools where anti-Semitic acts were reported may not have been told of them by the assistant principals who were responsible for discipline issues.

However, to balance this we must remember that there is no state mandate to report anti-Semitic acts or language. Without such, it appears things were handled on an ad hoc basis. It also appears that while the district has worked hard to expand students' understanding of diversity, bringing in speakers to address high school students, and also other speakers to explain to middle schoolers the dangers inherent in something like a smart phone, more will have to be done. Protocols for reporting incidents are likely to be one result, and quite possibly harsher punishment will be another.

No board members were willing to speak on the record about the case in recent weeks, or incidents last spring that sought action against those who in any way inferred that the district might have a bias problem, which arose during discussion of a possible request to Albany that PBSD redistrict itself as a means of protecting itself against possible "block voting," an apparent reference to the large Hasidic community coming together in Bloomingburg.

Asked how long the case might continue, Carbone has said she thought it would be several months before it was over. In the meantime, the district has joined the "No Place For Hate" campaign, which was begun by the Anti-Defamation League as a way to give schools and other organizations tools and advice on fighting bigotry.