Washington, D.C. (July 21, 2025) – The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the law firm of Cohen Williams LLP filed a complaint today against the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and the PAUSD’s Board of Education in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, alleging that PAUSD and the Board violated California’s open meeting laws, the Brown Act, by misleading the public about an important agenda item involving the district’s ethnic studies curriculum. The Brandeis Center and its partners brought a Brown Act lawsuit against Santa Ana Unified School District for approving ethnic student courses without public notice. The courses were riddled with anti-Semitism. The case settled with Santa Ana agreeing to remove the biased materials. Under the Brown Act, school boards must provide the public with accurate information about proposed agenda items so that members of the public can understand and comment on them. Not only do “under cover” actions by a school board violate the Brown Act, they violate a parent’s right to see what their children are being taught. In California, transparency has become an issue in many districts with respect to ethnic studies courses. Ethnic studies has the potential to reduce bias and discrimination in California, a project most Californians applaud. But unfortunately some activists have attempted to use ethnic studies courses as a vehicle for teaching dangerous, biased, and one-sided narratives, including about Israel and Jews. The complaint alleges that PAUSD violated the Brown Act in January when it approved a requirement that PAUSD high school students must complete an ethnic studies course to graduate, beginning with the class of 2029, a year earlier than it had informed the public originally. Three new Board members had been elected on promises of pausing the implementation of ethnic studies in order to obtain further input from the community. Consistent with that approach, the PAUSD Superintendent announced on January 16, 2025 that PAUSD would “pause” its ethnic studies rollout and await direction from the State. In response, however, certain members of the Board used the moment to sow confusion, calling a surprise Board meeting on January 23, 2025, at which they purported to “confirm” that completion of ethnic studies would “remain a graduation requirement beginning with the Class of 2029.” No such graduation requirement existed at the time of the January 23, 2025, meeting, and, therefore, no such graduation requirement could be confirmed. Furthermore, when confronted with questions about the content of the ethnic studies course, the district disavowed the draft course materials that had been circulated for public comment and refused to answer attendees’ questions about the course on the grounds that they reflected an inappropriate lack of “trust” in the Board. But California gives parents the right to trust and verify for themselves. “PAUSD’s actions are part of a concerning trend emerging in K-12 schools where board members act behind closed doors and without the required public notice in order to approve K-12 curriculum that may be controversial, inflame bigotry, and even be unlawful,” said Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who ran the Office of Civil Rights during two administrations. “The actions of PAUSD and their Board are a blatant attempt to circumvent public opinion and bypass the very legal protections that every individual – and parent – in California possesses.”