MISSION VIEJO : Anti-Semitic Flyers Found at 2 Schools

More than 150 anti-Semitic flyers were found stuffed inside student lockers at two Mission Viejo schools Monday, less than three months after similar incidents in San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Beach.

Students at Los Alisos Intermediate School and Mission Viejo High School found the flyers Monday morning after returning from a weeklong spring break, said Elaine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Saddleback Valley Unified School District.

Los Alisos, which has students from Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Laguna Hills, was the hardest hit with 150 of the flyers found on campus, Carter said. A much smaller number of the same flyers were found at the high school, Carter said.

Administrators from both schools responded immediately by discussing the incidents with students on a public intercom, and a letter will be sent home to all parents indicating that the school is “not responsible for this deplorable type of literature,” Carter said.

“We wanted to reassure parents that we are on top of this,” Carter said. “The community needs to know we will act in a timely fashion. We will not tolerate this type of thing on our campuses.”

Sheriff’s deputies, representatives of the Orange County Human Relations Commission and the Anti-Defamation League, and three rabbis from local temples were notified of the incidents, Carter said.

Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the group’s legal affairs division is looking into this “vile stuff.” He added that the group is looking into some “counter programming” and will send a letter to all county principals alerting them to the flyer incidents.

In January, racist flyers aimed at Latinos were distributed in lockers at Marco Forster Middle School and Laguna Beach High School.