The FBI has opened a probe into an antisemitic assault on a Las Vegas Jewish teen with autism who came home from school with a swastika carved into his back, according to Newsweek.
The 17-year-old boy who wears a kippah is non-verbal. He uses a service dog to go to school at Clark High School in Las Vegas, the Jewish Press reported.
In the incident, the boy’s service dog’s equipment bag was also vandalized.
The teen’s mother told the news outlet that Clark High School refused to take her complaint seriously.
The mother questioned how the boy’s assistant could have been with him the whole day without witnessing the incident.
"Her job is to be with my son. If she did not do [the carving], I believe she knows who did," the mother said, according to the Jewish Press.
She subsequently removed her son from Clark High School, describing it as an “unsafe environment.”
The family also submitted a report to the Clark County School District Police in March.
ADL Nevada denounced the incident in a statement, describing it as a “violent antisemitic act…that targeted the student for his identifiable faith.”
The teen “was particularly vulnerable due to his disability,” ADL Nevada said. “This incident illustrates points of intersectionality in how hate can show itself across marginalized communities.”
The advocacy group added it will be working with the school to provide antisemitism education.
“School should be no place for hate, and no student should be made to feel unsafe and threatened,” they said.