School to Discipline Those Responsible for Antisemitic Incident: District Announces Plans to Work with Jewish Organizations

The following letter was sent to the community by Scarsdale High School Principal Ken Bonamo and Scarsdale Superintendent Drew Patrick on April 21, 2026.

Dear Scarsdale Community,

We are writing to share a brief follow-up to last week’s communications. First, we are happy to report that the Israeli Culture Club event took place safely and successfully at community lunch on Monday. We are very gratified that the students who organized the event were able to see their plans come to a successful fruition. We would like to thank our faculty and staff for helping to plan for and carry out a safe and supportive student experience. We also thank the Scarsdale Police Department for their partnership throughout and presence on campus yesterday. Scarsdale High School has a long tradition of empowering students to explore their interests and passions in a safe and supported way beyond the classroom through clubs and activities. Monday’s event represented an opportunity to reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to ensuring that this tradition can continue.

When last we wrote, we noted that our investigation was underway. Today, we can confirm that the responsible parties have been identified and the necessary steps outlined in our code of conduct are being taken. Because of student privacy laws, we cannot share more details than this; we ask for your trust that this has been dealt with appropriately.

We have received a volume of communications over the past few days, many of which have included proactive suggestions for which we are grateful. In the immediate short term, a team of Board of Education and staff members are planning to attend a workshop on Wednesday titled Identifying and Addressing Antisemitism in our Schools co-sponsored by Westchester Jewish Council, and we also have a meeting scheduled with a colleague from the AJC. We ask for the community’s support in giving us the time and space to develop additional next steps as thoughtfully as possible. There are a number of very important events and experiences in the days and weeks ahead that our students have been preparing for - performances, internships, projects, and celebrations - many of which are culminating experiences. Our immediate priority is to ensure these events receive the support they deserve, even as we begin the planning for meaningful and appropriate programming that will strengthen the community moving forward. As we shared in our previous communication we will also be introducing a new set of guidelines for school sponsored events at our May 11, 2026, Board of Education meeting and will be seeking public comment on those guidelines.

We appreciate your continued support in this challenging and important work,

Mr. Ken Bonamo, SHS Principal
Dr. Drew Patrick, Superintendent

(Photo credit: Shelley Grafstein)