Antisemitic Hazing Incident Shocks Rhode Island Town

Football has long been ingrained in the fabric of Smithfield, R.I. From the late 1970s to early 2000s, the town’s most recognizable institution, Bryant College, hosted New England Patriots summer training camp. Today, the renamed Bryant University sports a Division I football program while across town, the Smithfield High football team is riding a 5-4 record into its annual Thanksgiving Day game.

But this autumn, the leafy suburb of Providence has been rocked by disturbing allegations from a football-related incident: on Sept. 30, five Smithfield High senior football players reportedly locked a Jewish freshman player in a bathroom before spraying him with Lysol and spewing antisemitic slurs at him. Following the school district’s subsequent investigation, Smithfield Superintendent Dawn Bartz on Oct. 10 adjudicated the matter by banning the alleged perpetrators for the balance of the season and requiring them to take a Holocaust education course.

“The investigation confirmed inappropriate conduct among a small number of students,” Bartz said in the official statement released in early October. “Disciplinary action has been taken in accordance with district policy, and several student-athletes will not participate for the remainder of the season.”

A local story quickly mushroomed into not just a regional one — but a national one — when less than two weeks later the alleged victim, whose parents had informed local law enforcement upon hearing their son’s report, strolled into practice and found himself face-to-face with the involved players who had just been reinstated. That the Smithfield school administration had backpedaled in its initial decision to levy a season-long suspension immediately ignited a firestorm of controversy, which only intensified when Bartz remained tight-lipped about explaining her rationale. (In an email to The Providence Journal, Bartz tersely remarked, “the disciplinary process has concluded, and we will not be discussing details involving students.”)

Once WJAR-TV, the Providence NBC affiliate, reported the players had returned mid-season, two Rhode Island-based Jewish advocacy groups, the Jewish Alliance for Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, publicly chastised the district for allowing the players to return, referring to the decision as a betrayal of the community’s trust and a setback in the fight against antisemitism. While calling for the Smithfield schools to implement professional development for staff and mandate anti-bias education for all students, the two groups issued a joint statement emphasizing some underlying issues:

“Administrators must understand that reversing consequences sends a dangerous message — that such hateful behavior will be tolerated. Moments like these remind us how vulnerable a minority community can feel. Jewish communities throughout Rhode Island and beyond are experiencing unprecedented waves of bigotry and intimidation.”

Adam Greenman, president of The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, went on to say, “to find out that the kids were reinstated and to find out in the way that we did, it just says to us that antisemitism is not taken seriously by Smithfield schools.”

Jewish communities throughout Rhode Island and beyond are experiencing unprecedented waves of bigotry and intimidation.

Bartz reneging on her pledge to hold the student-athletes accountable didn’t just draw the ire of Rhode Island’s Jewish community. After the alleged offenders returned, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee called for a “thorough investigation” by the school and district while Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos issued a lengthy statement decrying the episode, referring to the lenient consequences as sending “a dangerous and disheartening message to Jewish students, to victims of bullying, and to every Rhode Islander who believes in accountability and decency.”

Sen. David Tikoian, the Democrat who represents Smithfield in the Rhode Island Senate along with U.S. Reps. Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, have also voiced their concerns.

On Nov. 3 at Smithfield High, the Smithfield School Committee and Bartz met for three hours behind closed doors while a few hundred people waited in the auditorium. The School Committee divulged few details of its discussion with the exception of Committee Chair Richard Iannitelli providing a general overview of what transpired.

“It did take place in the boys’ locker room, football locker room, and it involved some of the students on the football team,” Iannitelli said. “Whether you want to call it hazing, or whether you want to call it bullying or a prank or a tradition, it makes no difference. What happened to the young adult in that room should not have happened.” Most notably, Iannitelli did not identify the incident as an act of “antisemitism,” an omission that sparked great controversy in the days ahead.

According to Iannitelli, very little content of the Nov. 3 closed-door meeting could be made public because the case was also being investigated as a civil matter by the office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. The School Committee did, however, vote unanimously to hire the law firm of the school’s legal counsel, Sean Clough, who served six years on the School Committee, four as its chairperson, to investigate the district’s handling of the situation. Two days later, Bartz was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the legal review.

In response to these accusations, Gregory Piccirilli, the attorney hired to defend the alleged malefactors, went on the record in stating, “As I understand, what happened there was locker room antics that occurred, I wouldn’t call it anything other than that because it didn’t even last two minutes. When the incident first happened, there was no indication to these boys or these parents that they were being accused of antisemitic behavior.” Meanwhile, a handful of parents, mostly mothers of football players, stood outside the auditorium before the Nov. 3 meeting commenced, handing out double-sided, one-page flyers downplaying the incident.

Throughout this entire saga, Smithfield High Athletic Director Glenn Castiglia has remained largely silent and did not respond to an email from the AJT asking for his comments.