U.S. Attorney Wants ‘United Against Hate’ Meetings in Schools

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Montana’s U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich recently hosted yet another ‘United Against Hate’ meeting in Great Falls last week, and emphasized the importance of getting this program into the state's public schools.

U.S. Attorney Laslovich wants United Against Hate Meetings in Schools

“We have some data that show that almost 75 percent of those who were surveyed, and this was throughout the country, of schools, and 75 percent of the respondents, these being middle school students and high school students, said that they've either witnessed or been on the receiving end of a hate incident, not necessarily violence, but just someone calling them a racial epithet based on the color of their skin.”

Laslovich was in Great Falls for the Most Recent Meeting

Laslovich said he was at the Great Falls Public Library with several state and local law enforcement officials due to the alarming increase in hate crimes in Montana.

“The U.S. Department of Justice has done a campaign called United Against Hate that we're doing throughout the country in all 94 United States Attorney offices and it's because of the increase, frankly, of hate incidents that potentially become hate crimes. And so, in Montana, this was our fourth, but before that we did one in Billings with houses of worship. We did one at the CSKT (Reservation) at Pablo (where the emphasis was on racism) and then we did one in Missoula with the LGBTQ community and then last week we were in Great Falls due to some anti-Semitic behavior that had unfortunately been occurring there.”

Laslovich said Great Falls Public Schools has Possible Anti-Semitic Actions

Laslovich explained what had happened in some Great Falls public schools that caused an alarm about possible anti-Semitic behavior.

“Some inserts were put into the library books at the public library,” he said. “(There were) stickers. They weren't adhered to the books but it was anti-Semitic material. In addition, some of that material is being put in sandwich bags that are filled with popcorn kernels to pull the bag down and then they have anti-Semitic material in that they put in the bag and they were throwing on random lawns.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office will be holding additional United Against Hate events in the coming months in communities across the state.