The Santa Ana Unified School District suffered a major courtroom defeat earlier this week when it settled a lawsuit with a coalition of Jewish organizations and agreed to their demands, including rescinding several of the district’s “liberated” Ethnic Studies courses and terminating its relationship with an Ethnic Studies consultant who promotes extremist views.
The lawsuit was brought in September 2023 by the Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee and Potomac Law Group announced today that they filed suit on behalf of the Brandeis Center and its membership arm, So-CUE (Southern Californians for Unbiased Education), a coalition of Jewish organizations.
Under the terms of the settlement, SAUSD will cease instruction of Ethnic Studies World Geography, Ethnic Studies World Histories, and Ethnic Studies: Perspectives, Identities, and Social Justice until the courses are re-designed with the opportunity for public input in accordance with California’s open meeting laws.
“The courses contained false and damaging narratives about Israel and the Jewish people. Anti-Semitic content will be removed from Ethnic Studies World Histories so that the course can continue being taught for the remainder of this school year only,” according to a press release from the coalition.
“Ethnic studies should never become a vehicle for sneaking dangerous, anti-Semitic materials into our schools. That is the law, plain and simple, and we’re glad to have stopped this in Santa Ana schools” said Brandeis Center Vice Chair L. Rachel Lerman. “Unfortunately, this dangerous and deceitful behavior is being attempted in other school districts as well. This should serve as a cautionary tale. We are watching those jurisdictions and will not hesitate to address similar violations of the law. School boards must operate in the light of day, and not ‘under the radar’ as SAUSD described its own conduct.”
The settlement is a severe setback for the SAUSD Board of Education and the radical teachers and “curriculum specialists” allied with them. The 2022 elections resulted in the five-member SAUSD Board of Education being totally composed of radical progressives who embraced strident identity politics.
Two of these Board members sat on and directed the Steering Committee that secretly developed the ideologically-charged curriculum in collaboration with ideologically-motivated educators. This cohort caused the district to contract with charged with developing the curriculum and directed to hire the Xicanix Institute of Teaching and Organization (XITO) to guide them.
XITO is run by Sean Arce, whose social media posts are replete with anti-white racism and anti-Semitic sentiments.
Arce went so far as to approvingly share a social media post from another far-Left academic praising the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 innocent civilians – – woman, children, old people – just a few weeks after the surprise murder spree.
READ: SAUSD Ethnic Studies Consultant Shares Social Media Post Lauding October 7 Hamas Massacre
In the spring of 2023, the SAUSD Board approved a series of Ethnic Studies courses grounded in the “liberated” version that was too extreme even for the state Department of Education.
The courses were infused with “postcolonial” ideology that painted United States history as a chronology of racism and oppression. It was also infused with anti-Semitic elements and taught students a distorted view of the Israel-Arab conflict in which the Jewish State was characterized as a malevolent example of settler colonialism bent on “genocide” against Palestinians.
SAUSD Board members shrugged aside the vocal outcry from Jewish community members and approved the courses.
This led a lawsuit being filed in September 2023.
In addition to ceasing instruction of the aforementioned Ethnic Studies courses, the SAUSD also agreed to never hire XITO or Sean Arce or any other individuals associated with the extremist group.
SAUSD also agreed to “recognize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a controversial issue” and to strictly adhere to the policies requiring the following instructional protocols:
- Teaching must be based on fact and allow for alternative views
- Teachers must ensure all sides of a controversial issue are impartially presented
- Students must be taught to separate opinion from fact
- No teacher or speaker may use the classroom or materials to advocate their own religious, political, economic or social views.
The group that conceived and gave birth to these courses – the SAUSD Ethnic Studies Steering Committee – will be permanently disbanded.
The settlement also forces the District to “allow for meaningful, substantive input from members of the public before any new courses are presented to the Board for approval.”
The litigation by the coalition of Jewish organizations – through depositions, affidavits, documents, text messages, and emails – uncovered a disturbing pattern of secrecy, bigotry, intolerance and anti-Semitism among members of the SAUSD Board and Steering Committee, as well as from Ethnic Studies teachers.
Some examples:
- Ethnic Studies Steering Committee officials mused about using Jewish holidays to approve courses at the board level to make it difficult or impossible for Jews to attend.
- The pejorative term “Jewish Question” appeared on a committee agenda.
- Steering Committee members said, “Jews are the oppressors” and do not belong in ethnic studies, referred to Jewish organizations as “racist” and urged that SAUSD not “cave” to their concerns.
- A Steering Committee member reportedly refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization even after the October 7 terrorist attack, arguing that it would be “dehumaniz[ing]” to call Hamas members “terrorists.”
- Another Steering Committee member dismissed the only Jewish member as having a “colonized Jewish mind” and being a “f—ing baby” for expressing concerns over anti-Semitism among Committee members.
- Jewish staff at SAUSD complained about the “thinly veiled antisemitism” coming from Steering Committee leaders and the hurtful comments said about Jews.
READ: SAUSD’s Ethnic Studies Controversy: Who Is “Employee 1”?
Community members spoke at SAUSD Board meeting in opposition to the content of the Ethnic Studies courses were harassed and subjected to anti-Semitism.
“For example, classic anti-Semitic tropes as well as threatening and violent language were used against Jews; applause broke out in response to anti-Semitic slurs; audience members hissed as the names of Jewish attendees were called; a Jewish speaker was called racist; a Jewish student who spoke at the meeting was derided as a “Jew boy;” and another speaker was followed to her car and harassed by a meeting attendee,” according to a statement from the Jewish community coalition.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in our communities – and especially not in our schools. Here, Santa Ana, CA’s past Board & Committee members knew that anti-Semitism was infecting their curriculum process, and intentionally excluded the public from it,” said James Pasch, ADL Vice President, National Litigation.
“This case should serve as a warning to other California districts that try to conceal ethnic studies materials that are anti-Zionist or outright anti-Semitic,” said AJC Chief Legal Officer Marc Stern. “Ethnic studies are acceptable only if adopted in the light of day and, if in the end, all sides of a controversial issue are taught by educators free of judgment. Classrooms must be places for education, not indoctrination.”
