Published by Haaretz on 2/23/2025. A Southern California public school district has settled a lawsuit brought by major Jewish organizations which alleged that the district’s new ethnic studies curriculum had been covertly developed to allow for antisemitic elements. Ethnic Studies courses examine different academic subjects through the perspectives of marginalized racial groups, exploring their cultures, contributions and resistance while equipping students with tools to analyze and challenge systemic racism. The district will now pause the courses and ensure future lessons on Israel-Palestine follow policies requiring balance and public input. The Brandeis Center, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, announced on Thursday that the Santa Ana Unified School District, which represents some 50 schools and over 36,000 students, has agreed to remove four Ethnics Studies courses until they can be redesigned, with the opportunity for public input in accordance with California’s open meeting laws. SAUSD also agreed to recognize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “controversial issue,” making it subject to two separate school board policies which require fact-based approaches that allow for alternative views, with all sides presented impartially. The policies also call for distinctions to be made between opinion and fact and forbids teachers or speakers from using classroom time to advocate their own religious, political, economic, or social views. The settlement comes two years after a coalition of Jewish organizations, including the Brandeis Center, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee initially filed the lawsuit, with additional motions submitted in August of last year. According to the complaint, in March and April of 2023, SAUSD deliberately bypassed the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law which requires school boards to inform the public of upcoming sessions and agendas in order to allow for community input. The suit alleged that this was done specifically to approve course content that the coalition described as containing “dangerously anti-Jewish teachings.” According to the complaint, the curriculum included “one-sided anti-Israel screeds and propaganda that teaches students – falsely – that Israel is an illegitimate, ‘settler colonial,’ ‘racist’ country that ‘stole’ land from a pre-existing country called Palestine and engages in unprovoked warfare against Palestinian Arabs.” Furthermore, it accused members of the Ethnic Studies Steering Committee, which created the courses, of refusing to consult with anyone from the Jewish community about possible objections, instead opting to seek advice from organizations with a history of antisemitism. According to the press release, one external consultant equated Israel with “settler colonialism” and used social media to actively promote anti-Israel bias with antisemitic tropes, including messages about “Zionist control” and that “the Zionist CA Jewish Caucus hijacked Ethnic Studies.” As part of the agreement, the committee will now be permanently disbanded and the district will no longer be working with these outside consultants. Instead, any new ethnic studies courses must be presented to the Board for approval, which will allow ample time for “meaningful, substantive input” from members of the public before any decision is made. The lawsuit also asserted that during a general board meeting in May, SAUSD’s Board of Education failed to take appropriate action when “Jewish attendees were harassed and intimidated by others based on their actual or perceived Jewish identity.” In a statement made after the settlement was reached, Superintendent Jerry Almendarez said, “At no time has the district supported the teaching of instructional content to students that reflects adversely on any group on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, or national origin as alleged in the lawsuit.” “The settlement of this lawsuit affirms that principle and resolves any misunderstanding that may have occurred,” he added. The terms of the agreement were hailed by the heads of the organizations that brought the suit, including Brandeis Center Vice Chair L. Rachel Lerman. “Ethnic studies should never become a vehicle for sneaking dangerous, antisemitic materials into our schools,” Lerman said in a statement. “That is the law, plain and simple, and we’re glad to have stopped this in Santa Ana schools.” “Unfortunately, this dangerous and deceitful behavior is being attempted in other school districts as well,” she continued. 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.” Not everyone celebrated the decision, though. Back in 2023, during school board meetings to discuss the courses, Pro-Palestinian activists lobbied heavily to have the lessons kept in the curriculum. Now, the Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) is raising concerns over the settlement, calling on SAUSD not to remove discussions of Palestine entirely. “This settlement goes against the heart of what ethnic studies courses are intended to be: a structural analysis of the experience of marginalized communities and people of color, including Palestinian Americans,” CAIR-LA said in a statement on Friday. “The lawsuit was an effort to intimidate and censor any educator who wishes to discuss Palestine in their curriculum or speak on Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians and illegal occupation of their land. It is critical that the Board of Education ensures that these special interest groups, which are attempting to erase all legitimate criticism of Israel, do not take over the district’s ethnic studies courses.”