MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) is investigating vandalism at a public school in Montgomery County.

On Sunday, August 11, 2024, officers from the Montgomery County Police Department’s 2nd District were dispatched to Bethesda Elementary School at approximately 7:15 a.m. to take a report of vandalism.

According to MCPD, unknown suspects spray-painted anti-Semitic slogans in the school’s parking lot and a nearby building in the 4900 block of Del Ray Ave. overnight.

No descriptions of the suspects were provided.

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“What happened here this morning does not reflect the best values ​​of Montgomery County,” said Guila Frankin Siegel, COO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “When I first saw the language and realized this was an elementary school, I was horrified.”

Siegel says the graffiti was first noticed Sunday morning during the weekly farmers market.

“It’s something that affects not just Jewish students, Jewish families, Jewish individuals and Jewish allies – it affects the entire fabric of the community,” Siegel said.

The Superintendent of District 2 in Bethesda posted this photo showing community members and people from the Bethesda Urban Partnership cleaning up the vandalism:

“What gives me hope is the response of the people at Goodwill, the response of our leadership,” Siegel said. “This is not how parents and children should spend a lazy summer Sunday morning.”

7News has reached out to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for comment on Sunday’s incident.

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In a statement, CAIR’s Maryland director Zainab Chaudry said:

The graffiti is an unfortunate symptom of growing frustration with the Israeli government’s brutal genocide in Gaza that has been going on for over 310 days. We support efforts to clean up the vandalism, but the stains the Biden administration has etched into the chapters of our country’s history, funding the Israeli government’s indiscriminate bombings, torture camps, and other crimes against humanity, will never be erased. While our government has once again approved $3.5 billion more in military aid to perpetuate this cycle of depravity, every day brings more news of the most horrific, inhumane documented crimes imaginable that the Israeli government commits against civilians daily with impunity. This must urgently and immediately stop.

“There is no place in our community for hatred of any kind, be it anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or any other kind of hatred,” Siegel said.