"Jihad Day" threatens how Deep Bay District schools handle security issues

Bay Area schools and universities say they are increasing security and, in some cases, canceling classes because of unconfirmed threats of pro-Hamas violence.

Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, Wernick Jewish Day School in Foster City and South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale said they were withdrawing due to concerns about Jewish institutions, according to The Jewish Week The schools will be closed on Friday as they could be targeted.

Stanford University School of Law announced that all classes on Friday will be held on Zoom due to student concerns about the safety of “Jihad Day.”

It comes days after the former leader of Hamas issued a global call for violence on Friday.

Other schools in the Bay Area, such as those in the Palo Alto Unified School District, announced they are increasing security on campus. A kindergarten in San Francisco also said it had arranged to strengthen school gate security on Friday.

Officials at San Francisco Bay Jewish Community High School said they will increase security and limit campus visitors on Friday and next week, but they encouraged students — despite their fears — to attend classes in person on Friday.

Officials at Jewish Community High School said they have been in contact with security and threat assessment experts from the FBI, San Francisco Police Department and other federal organizations, such as the Safe Communities Network, a national organization’s Jewish community security team.

“At this time, the overwhelming consensus expressed by SCN national directors is that there is ‘absolutely no evidence of a specific, credible threat to the United States or anywhere on the ground,'” they wrote.

Officials at Brandeis, a K-8 Jewish day school in San Francisco, declined to comment by phone.