A California school is accused of trying to cover up an “anti-Semitic” ethnic studies program, according to a lawsuit filed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) is accused of knowingly violating California's Brown Act, an open meetings law, by “quite unobtrusively” developing and approving anti-Semitic curriculum. According to the motion filed in lawsuit Announced by ADL on monday. LitigationThe lawsuit, first filed in September 2023, was brought against SAUSD on behalf of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights, which works to advance Jewish civil and human rights, and its member organization, Southern California for Prejudice-Free Education (So-CUE).
The ADL, along with the Brandeis Center, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and the law firm Covington & Burling, filed the complaint with new evidence supporting their claims that the school district prevented the public, and the Jewish community in particular, from expressing their views in order to prevent anti-Semitic and bigoted content from being included in the ethnic studies curriculum. A hearing in the case is scheduled for September 19.
Under the Brown Act and AB101, which passed in 2021 and made ethnic studies a graduation requirement for all public high schools in California, the school board must make proposed course curriculum available to the public and solicit public comment before approving new content.
The ACLU claims that the lawsuit seeks to prevent anti-Semitic material from being taught in SAUSD while the school board is in the process of approving the course. The lawsuit also asks the court to declare that SAUSD violated the Brown Act, bar the district from teaching the illegally approved course, and order school officials to follow open meetings laws going forward.
Opening statements will be made during a board meeting on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in the Santa Ana Unified School District board room in Santa Ana, California. (Getty Images)
According to the complaint, examples that emerged during discovery in the lawsuit show that when members of SAUSD's Ethnic Studies Steering Committee learned of anti-Semitism concerns from the Jewish community, they wrote in an official agenda that they needed to “address Jewish issues.” SAUSD officials also reportedly floated the idea of using Jewish holidays to approve courses to reduce the likelihood that Jews would attend school board meetings.
James Pash, ADL's senior director of national litigation, told Fox News Digital that the public meetings are required by law to prevent exactly this situation.
“Under California law, governing bodies should and are required to welcome and accept community input, but they viewed Jews as an obstacle that should be excluded from the process,” he said. “As a direct result of that exclusion, we now have anti-Israel, anti-Semitic content in our ethnic studies curriculum. At the end of the day, what we're asking for, what the law requires, is a seat at the table.”
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“Now that the curriculum has been passed, the damage continues. We are asking the court to step in and stop this, go back to the starting line and ensure that the ethnic studies curriculum is passed based on facts and truth in an open process from the beginning,” he added.
L. Rachel Lerman, counsel at the Brandeis Center, which is representing both the plaintiffs and the defense in the lawsuit, said she believes the situation in Santa Ana is a symptom of problems throughout the education system, and in California in particular, where there is “a lack of transparency on many levels.”
At the state level, California created a model ethnic studies curriculum and approved it for use after the first two versions were deemed too anti-Semitic. Following public protests, But California schools aren't required to use the model curriculum, she explained, and can create their own as long as it's within the bounds of the law.
Superintendent Jerry Almendarez speaks at a board meeting in the Santa Ana Unified School District boardroom on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Santa Ana, California. (Getty Images)
“You can't violate anti-discrimination laws and you can't bring back something that was previously removed from the curriculum and rejected,” she said, “but there were a lot of activists determined to bring it back.”
According to the motion, senior members of the steering committee charged with developing the curriculum were quoted as saying, “Jews are not a disadvantaged race in America because they were not slaves,” “Jews are better off because they benefit greatly from white privilege,” and “We don't have to give in to both sides. We only support the oppressed, and the Jews are the oppressors.”
The same committee also hired an outside consultant who equated Israel with “settler colonialism” and actively promoted anti-Israel bigotry and anti-Semitism on social media, according to the motion. “Israel is nothing more than European settler colonialism cloaked in religion defended by white guilt and capitalism,” the consultant claimed on social media.
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According to the motion, one committee leader allegedly called the only Jewish member who raised concerns about anti-Semitism a “colonized Jewish mind” and a “bitch,” while another called the Orange County Jewish Federation “racist Zionists” and suggested SAUSD should not “give in” to their representative. That same representative reportedly refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, claiming it was “dehumanizing.”[ing]”They call Hamas members 'terrorists'”
According to the motion, Jewish staff at SAUSD complained about “thin-skinned anti-Semitism” emanating from governing board leaders and were “hurt by some of the things they said about Jewish people.” After members of the community learned that the School Committee had reportedly acted in secret to approve the materials, they attended the meeting to publicly comment, only to be harassed with anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Robin Grien makes her way back to her seat after speaking during a board meeting in the Santa Ana Unified School District boardroom, Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Santa Ana, California. (Getty Images)
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SAUSD told Fox News Digital that the case will soon be heard in court and that the district will “defend its actions approving the specific ethnic studies course mandated by the California Legislature as a new graduation requirement.”
“The lawsuit filed against the District alleges that the District violated state law in two ways: (1) the District failed to comply with the 'open meeting' requirements of the Brown Act in approving the courses, and (2) some of the materials provided to teachers when teaching the courses at issue were unlawfully biased in that they portrayed the State of Israel and the Jewish community in a negative light,” the statement said. “The District denies these allegations and will present its counterarguments and facts to the Court for its consideration, and is optimistic that the Court will ultimately rule in the District's favor.”
Marcy Lerner Miller, director of legal research at the Brandeis Center, told Fox News Digital that the evidence that SAUSD violated California law is “overwhelming.”
“This case is an example of the very extreme measures taken to hide things from public view, with far-reaching consequences. And that's exactly what the Brown Act and AB 101 were intended to prevent,” she said. “We know what happens when things are hidden from public view, and things like anti-Semitism flourish.”
Pash said the ADL is “disappointed” that the district has “failed to repent for its violation of state law and for the deeply offensive, anti-Semitic comments made by district employees.”
“Our evidence is based primarily on the district's own records and we look forward to presenting that evidence to the court in this case,” he said.
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