The Parkway C-2 and Rockwood R-VI school districts must create formal policies for reporting and investigating antisemitism after Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a new state law the week of April 21, according to St. Louis Public Radio.

The law, which originated as HB 2061, requires every public school and college in Missouri to establish procedures for investigating antisemitic incidents and disciplining hate speech targeting Jewish students. The Missouri Senate passed the measure 30-0, and the House approved the final version before sending it to Kehoe's desk.

State Rep. George Hruza (R-St. Louis), who filed the bill after what he described as a rise in antisemitism across Missouri, is the son of a Holocaust survivor. His grandparents and great-grandparents were killed at Auschwitz.

"Our students need to know that we have their backs," Hruza told First Alert 4 when the bill cleared the legislature. "Students who are going about their studies, they have no impact or influence of what's happening in Israel, what the government does, what anybody else does. And so, to be attacked for it, to be harassed over it is ridiculous."

FBI hate crime statistics show 69 percent of religious hate crimes nationally target Jewish people, who make up roughly 2 percent of the U.S. population. Supporters cited the data throughout the legislative debate.

Some Democratic lawmakers opposed the bill, raising concerns that it could limit teachers' and students' ability to criticize the Israeli government or discuss war, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Supporters countered that the law targets harassment, not political speech.

Parkway C-2 and Rockwood R-VI — which together serve most of the Chesterfield area and western St. Louis County — have not yet announced how they will implement the new requirements. The law's compliance deadline could not be confirmed from available sources.

The signing coincides with "Lest We Forget," a free Holocaust survivor portrait exhibit on display in Chesterfield through May 3.