The state of California, its Division of Training and officers have been sued Thursday by two Jewish advocacy teams that alleged the state allowed antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli college students to go unchecked on campuses.
The go well with by Louis D. Brandeis Heart for Human Rights and StandWithUs — nonprofits centered on Jewish civil rights — was filed on behalf of a minimum of 12 Jewish dad and mom and college students who say they’ve confronted “pervasive anti-Semitism of their California public faculties,” courtroom paperwork stated.
The go well with additionally names the California State Board of Training and State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
The lawsuit alleges the state has violated the California Structure’s equal safety and free train clauses, which prohibit discrimination by a state-governed entity in opposition to sure non secular teams. The go well with seeks a courtroom order that may require California to observe on-campus antisemitism, remove antisemitic curricula and impose limits on funding for faculties that fail to implement nondiscrimination insurance policies.
The California Division of Training and a number of other of the college districts cited within the go well with didn’t reply Thursday to requests for remark.
The go well with alleges eight Okay-12 college districts — together with Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Berkeley Unified, Fremont Unified and Oakland Unified — allowed antisemitism to “fester” on their campuses, actions the state didn’t intervene to cease.
The accusations embrace a Jewish scholar allegedly being compelled to take a seat by a “celebration” of Hamas’ 2023 assault in opposition to Israel at Daniel Pearl Magnet Excessive Faculty in Los Angeles and a Berkeley Unified instructor allegedly displaying imagery of a fist punching by the Star of David — a non secular image current on Israel’s nationwide flag, the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit stated some districts allowed “unapproved curriculum” that includes antisemitic tropes, together with in Oakland, the place an unauthorized “teach-in” protest included a youngsters’s e book that allegedly learn “I is for Intifada,” in keeping with stories from the New York Instances. “Intifada” means “rebellion” in Arabic.
“Jewish youngsters and kids perceived as Jewish are bullied and excluded by their friends and harassed by their lecturers, who silence, mock, and even segregate them in the event that they communicate out,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, chair of the Brandeis Heart and the previous U.S. assistant secretary of Training through the Bush and first Trump administrations.
Los Angeles highschool mum or dad Mike Rosenthal stated in a testimonial revealed by the Brandeis Heart that “we’re becoming a member of this go well with as a result of our little one felt unsafe expressing their Jewish id within the public college after an grownup instructor was permitted to show anti‑Jewish, anti‑Israel, and anti‑American supplies within the classroom.”
Catherine Lhamon, the chief director of the UC Berkeley Edley Heart on Regulation and Democracy, stated the Brandeis Heart and StandWithUs lawsuit seems to specific a vote of “no confidence” in California’s latest legislative efforts to deal with antisemitism at faculties.
Meeting Invoice 715 and Senate Invoice 48 have been signed into legislation final 12 months, establishing an antisemitism prevention coordinator and a state Workplace for Civil Rights to fight antisemitism and different types of discrimination in Okay-12 faculties.
“It’s somewhat uncommon to go to the courtroom relatively than to the Legislature or the governor’s workplace on that, however it is going to be an early hurdle for the litigants to recover from on this case,” Lhamon stated. “I feel the state view, having simply upgraded that system, is that it has a brand new course of that ought to work.”
The state Structure’s sturdy equal safety clause has saved most districts in test for years, Lhamon stated.
