WASHINGTON – As many as one in 10 hate crimes in the United States takes place at schools – from kindergarten to college – according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report released on Jan 29, with Black students the most frequent targets, followed by Jewish and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer victims.

Schools were the third most frequent location for hate crimes – after residences and roadways or alleys – from 2018 to 2022, even though most schools experienced months of closures during the 2020 to 2021 academic year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US has seen a marked increase in hate crimes – defined by the FBI as an offence motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender – in recent years.

The FBI’s compilation of crime data shows the number of reported bias crimes went from around 8,500 in 2018 to more than 13,300 in 2022, a record high.

The number of reported hate incidents in schools rose even more rapidly, nearly doubling over the five-year period, from 700 in 2018 to 1,336 in 2022. The latter figure represented 10 per cent of all hate crimes reported in the country.

Nearly two-thirds of the offences took place in kindergarten to 12th grade schools.

Most experts said hate crimes are typically undercounted, since they rely on subjective evaluations by law enforcement agencies whether there was a discriminatory intent.

In addition, many victims choose not to report their experiences to the police for fear of reprisal, experts say.

The war in Gaza, which began in October after Hamas militants attacked Israel, has led to a spike in both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents across the US, according to advocacy groups. REUTERS