A California school district is facing allegations of violating open meeting laws and approving an ethnic studies curriculum that contains antisemitic content. The lawsuit, filed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), alleges that the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) intentionally excluded the public, particularly the Jewish community, from providing input during the approval process. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the district from teaching the allegedly biased curriculum and ensure transparency in future meetings.
A lawsuit filed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) alleges that a California school district violated open meeting laws and approved an ethnic studies curriculum that contains antisemitic content.
California School District Accused of Concealing Antisemitic Ethnic Studies Curriculum
The lawsuit, filed against the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), claims that the district intentionally excluded the public, particularly the Jewish community, from providing input during the approval process. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the district from teaching the allegedly biased curriculum and ensure transparency in future meetings.
According to the lawsuit, the district intentionally violated the Brown Act, California's open meetings laws, to develop and approve the curriculum under the radar. The ADL alleges that the district prevented the public, particularly the Jewish community, from providing public comment to prevent antisemitic and biased content in its ethnic studies curricula.
California School District Accused of Concealing Antisemitic Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Examples uncovered in the discovery period of the lawsuit show that members of SAUSD's Ethnic Studies Steering Committee noted in an official agenda that it needed to "address the Jewish question" when they learned about antisemitism concerns from the Jewish community. 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 Pasch, ADL senior director of national litigation, told Fox News Digital that open, public meetings are required by law to prevent these exact situations. "Instead of welcoming input from the community as the way governing bodies can do, should do and are required to do under California state law, they saw Jews as an obstacle to exclude in the process," he said.
California School District Accused of Concealing Antisemitic Ethnic Studies Curriculum
L. Rachel Lerman, general counsel of the Brandeis Center, which is both a plaintiff and counsel in the case, indicated that the situation in Santa Ana seems to be a problem throughout the education system, specifically in California, where she believes "there's a lack of transparency at many levels."
Senior members of the Steering Committee, which was in charge of developing the curriculum, reportedly stated: "Jews are not a disadvantaged ethnic group in the U.S. because they were never slaves," that "Jews greatly benefit from white privilege, so they have it better," and "we don't need to give both sides. We only support the oppressed, and Jews are the oppressors," according to the motion.
California School District Accused of Concealing Antisemitic Ethnic Studies Curriculum
That same committee also hired an external consultant whose social media musings equated Israel with "settler colonialism" and actively promoted anti-Israel bias and antisemitism, according to the motion. "Israel is nothing more than European settler colonialism draped in religion defended by white guilt and capitalism," the consultant espoused on social media.
According to the motion, one committee leader allegedly referred to the sole Jewish member as a "colonized Jewish mind" and a "f---ing baby" for expressing concerns over antisemitism, while another leader referred to the Jewish Federation of Orange County as "racist Zionists" and suggested that SAUSD should not "cave" to their representatives. That same representative reportedly refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization even after the October 7 terrorist attack at the hands of Hamas, arguing that it would be "dehumaniz[ing]" to call Hamas members "terrorists."
Jewish staff at SAUSD reportedly complained about the "thinly veiled antisemitism" coming from Steering Committee leaders and were "hurt by some of the things" they "said about Jews," according to the motion. When members of the community discovered the reported covert actions of the school board to approve the material, they appeared at a meeting to publicly comment but were harassed with antisemitic rhetoric.
SAUSD told Fox News Digital that the case will soon be heard in court, where the district will "defend its action of approving certain Ethnic Studies courses mandated by California’s legislature as new graduation requirements." The district denies the claims of violating state law and alleges that certain materials offered to teachers as resources are not biased.
Marci Lerner Miller, the director of legal investigations at the Brandeis Center, told Fox News Digital that the evidence that SAUSD broke California law is "overwhelming." "The case has wide implications because it serves as an example of really extreme measures taken to keep things from the public eye, which is really what the Brown Act and AB101 were intended to prevent," she said. "We see what happens when things are taken out of public view, things like antisemitism are rampant."
Pasch said the ADL is "disappointed" that the district "remains unrepentant regarding its violations of state law and the deeply offensive and anti-Semitic statements made by district officials." "Our evidence is based primarily on the district's own records, and we look forward to laying out that evidence to the court in this case," he said.
