Colleges and universities in California are on high alert since President Trump signed an executive order to deport international students who participated in campus pro-Hamas demonstrations last spring. But a recent lawsuit against a California school district suggests that students’ exposure to antisemitism begins much earlier than college.
This month, a Southern California school district halted its ethnic studies curriculum as part of a settlement in a lawsuit over alleged antisemitic content. In September 2023, three Jewish groups sued the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) for attempting to “sneak in” antisemitic material into its ethnic studies curriculum. The plaintiffs also allege that the district concealed this action from the community in violation of the Brown Act which requires California schools to hold open meetings with members of the community regarding school curriculums.
In 2021, California became the first state to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement in public high schools. While ethnic studies could in theory be a valuable tool in combating racism and bigotry, for many this appears more agenda-driven given the overwhelming leftwing bias that school districts have taken.
The State Board of Education’s model curriculum focuses primarily on black, Latino, Asian-American and Native American cultures and histories, with an effort to give representation to people of color. This has led some to praise the new legislation as an opportunity to promote better understanding of various ethnic groups including Jewish communities. The earliest version of this curriculum, however, had to be changed due to antisemitic depictions of Jews and portrayals of Israel as an oppressive apartheid state. The current version was approved in March 2021, with modifications to the sections on Jewish history.
That hasn’t stopped school districts from trying to push for more bigoted versions within their own curriculum. Under the new law, California school districts must implement unbiased and neutral perspectives in how they present the material, but they have a lot of freedom to develop their own curriculum as they see fit provided they have the consent and input from the surrounding community in compliance with the Brown Act.
But many school districts do not see it that way, and have instead allowed their agenda to inform their curriculums, and are even willing to withhold information from their communities to push for a curriculum that is deeply bigoted against Jews. It would seem that the same proponents of the ethnic studies curriculum are the same proponents of Jew hatred and anti-Israel rhetoric.
For example, in November 2023, only weeks after the October 7th attacks on Israel, Oakland teachers held an unauthorized teach-in in which they incorporated the war in Gaza into their curriculum — which also included the anti-semitic tropes against Jews and the state of Israel — and referred to Hamas as essentially freedom fighters. The Oakland Education Association, an Oakland teachers union, endorsed the action of the teachers, while the Oakland school board condemned it. The Oakland City Council also considered calling for a cease-fire in a possible resolution only weeks after the October 7th attacks, demonstrating that these ideas are not relegated to classrooms in Oakland public schools.
But this is not isolated to Oakland, as the recent settlement with the Santa Ana Unified School District has shown. SAUSD was sued over an attempt to hide antisemitic content from Jewish members of the community in Orange County. They did this by planning to hold school committee hearings on Jewish holidays like Passover, in order to ensure that Jewish members would not be in attendance lest they protest.
The lawsuit was filed by three Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, and alleged that not only did the school district illegally hide this material from Jewish members of the community, but that in these committee hearings they openly referred to Israel as a settler colonial nation, and stated that Jews were white settlers and not a disadvantaged minority which needed protection.
These committee members, and an outside consultant regurgitated the old leftwing tropes that Jews were oppressors, and portrayed Zionism as something nefarious, harkening back to old Soviet era propaganda. This past weekend, it was announced that the school district was halting its curriculum as part of a settlement in the lawsuit.
It is unsure whether or not this will send a message to other school districts who attempt to pull something like this. The colleges and universities that have taken action against pro-Hamas demonstrations should also pay attention to the radical ideologies brought in their doors by many of their freshmen.
If California was serious about combating hatred against Jewish students on its college campuses, then it would first address the problem of far left educators in its K-12 public schools who promote this hate under the banner of activism, and now ethnic studies. The state has gradually lowered standards for decades, and has replaced them with radical activist causes, among which being pro-Hamas and anti-Israel is apparently on the list.
David Mendoza is a teacher and writer in California and a Middle East History & Peace Fellow with Young Voices. He holds an M.A. in Historical Theology from Westminster Seminary California.
