8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY August 1-7, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com news The man accused of assaulting a teenager on Scribble Hill in Sand City in 2023 was convicted of the crime on July 26. Max Steiner, 38, is set to be sentenced for the misdemeanor on Aug. 30. He was in custody at Monterey County Jail as of July 30, and bail was set at $5,000. On Oct. 12 in Sand City, Steiner approached three young PalestinianAmerican women who wrote on a sand dune a message that read: “Free Palestine.” During the trial, which began July 22, both sides agreed that Steiner saw the sign, got off his bike and during a heated exchange proceeded uphill and destroyed the sign. Thirteen-year-old Maryam Khalil started recording the incident with her phone that Steiner eventually took away from her and threw on the ground. Steiner represented himself in the courtroom of Judge Ian Rivamonte, while Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Laura Batcha prosecuted the case. During a cross-examination on July 23, Steiner had questions regarding the number of videos taken by Maryam Khalil and submitted to the police and the District Attorney, and whether they were edited in any way. District Attorney’s Office Digital Forensic Investigator Natalie Dill confirmed that she examined Khalil’s phone and prepared the video to serve as exhibits in court. Per Steiner’s request, she also confirmed the type of damage to the iPhone (back shattered under the phone case, front screen cracked at the bottom) and the software she used to examine the phone and extract the data. The victims have also sued Steiner in civil court, seeking damages connected to the confrontation. Sending a Message A jury convicts a man of assaulting a teen during Scribble Hill confrontation. By Agata Pop˛eda If the walls could talk…in school bathrooms they don’t need to. In many cases, students leave behind graffiti in the bathroom. Sometimes, those messages are not just gossip, but hate. The bathroom walls were just one canvas for hate speech and symbols in recent years at Carmel High School, according to a report released on July 26 by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Students, teachers and custodians discovered swastikas and the n-word, written or etched in the bathroom and also on desks, a ruler, a bench, a person’s skin. Administrators knew about 15 instances of hate graffiti during the 2021-22 and 2023-24 school years, the investigation found. Beyond the graffiti, the report describes a student telling another student they wanted to “kill all Jews and burn them in their homes,” a student referencing Hitler and vandalism of a poster. (Some details are not provided due to redactions in OCR’s publicly released report.) “The frequency with which the swastikas and other antisemitic expressions or incidents occurred establishes that the incidents of antisemitic graffiti and conduct were pervasive and not isolated,” OCR reported. And there may be more: “The district’s nonexistent recordkeeping raises the likelihood that additional incidents occurred.” For the 2022-23 school year, the district had no records regarding harassment. The resulting determination by OCR is that Carmel Unified School District violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. OCR determined that although CUSD took some disciplinary actions against students, the district failed to adequately address the concerns of Jewish students on campus. The school created an Anti-Hate Speech Task Force, which met at least 10 times from 2021-22. But the issue did not die down. In 2022, a student spoke publicly at a Board of Education meeting to say the official response was limited. “All we received was an unhelpful five-minute spiel in class. The five-minute spiel just said that hate speech was happening and that the consequences would be suspension and possibly expulsion.” CUSD entered into a resolution with OCR, which calls for the district to review and revise policies and procedures; disseminate a statement that it does not tolerate discrimination; in the 2024-25 school year, conduct a survey about harassment and the district’s handling of it; provide training; and more. These steps can be meaningful, but it takes something more to make them effective, says Teresa Drenick, deputy regional director for the AntiDefamation League’s Central Pacific Region. “What they need to do is be sincere in their desire to fix it,” she says. “No child should ever have to face hatred when they attend school. But the failure of a school to act when they know this hate is taking place is entirely unacceptable,” Drenick adds. In a statement, Superintendent Sharon Ofek said, “I am fully committed to creating a safe environment for all of our students, as a school needs to be a place for growth and learning, not trauma. As a Jewish-American, I support this major step toward ensuring that antisemitism is completely eradicated from the classroom.” A race relations survey in 2023 at Carmel High School found that 9 percent of students had seen hate graffiti; 41 percent heard about it and were distressed by it. Hate Speech Federal investigation finds repeated acts of antisemitism created a ‘hostile environment’ in Carmel Unified. By Sara Rubin Max Steiner represented himself at trial, and after his misdemeanor conviction has retained an attorney. He attempted to persuade the jury that phone footage of the incident was manipulated. “The failure to act is entirely unacceptable.” Daniel Dreifuss Daniel Dreifuss
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