Originally Published by OCRegister on September 28, 2024 Rep. Michelle Steel has requested a federal civil rights investigation into Santa Ana Unified School District’s alleged antisemitism surrounding its ethnic studies program. In a letter addressed to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday, Sept. 26, Steel and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, said ongoing litigation — following allegations that the district’s ethnic studies steering committee developed and approved curriculum with antisemitic content and in the process violated the Brown Act — has already revealed “an alarming pattern of antisemitism at the highest levels.” In 2023, Santa Ana Unified’s school board approved two ethnic studies courses that included lessons about colonialism around the world, cultural appropriation, Native American culture and White privilege. At issue is the inclusion of lessons critical of the Israeli government that pro-Israel groups later challenged. In September 2023, a group of Jewish organizations — the Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee — and the law firm Covington & Burling filed a lawsuit against Santa Ana Unified. They alleged that those lessons “contain false and damaging narratives about Israel and the Jewish people.” The content in Santa Ana Unified’s courses was inspired by proposed state educational guidelines Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed in 2020 due to bias, the lawsuit alleged. That legislation had sought to make a one-semester ethnic studies course a high school graduation requirement, but Jewish groups then argued the proposed curriculum was antisemitic. Newsom signed into law in 2021 a separate measure that requires ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement. The Santa Ana Unified lawsuit alleged that the courses were developed “in secrecy” behind closed doors by a committee the superintendent created to develop the ethnic studies curriculum under the direction of the school board, violating California’s open meeting laws. Enacted in 1953, the Brown Act “guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies,” according to the attorney general’s office. The lawsuit asks the court to stop Santa Ana Unified from teaching the ethnic studies courses “passed in violation of the law” until they are lawfully approved. District spokesperson Fermin Leal pushed back on the allegations pertaining to Brown Act violations. Leal said the lawsuit made a false presumption that the steering committee is an “official” subcommittee of Santa Ana Unified, which would make it subject to the open meeting laws in the Brown Act. But that isn’t the case, he said. “The steering committee is an advisory body that uses public outreach to gather perceptions, expertise and competing viewpoints from various constituencies before recommending the final model curriculum to the board for adoption,” Leal said. “This is the same process we use for adopting other curriculum models.” David Loy, legal director for government watchdog group First Amendment Coalition, questioned the legality of the steering committee’s alleged private meetings. “Brown Act matters are decided by substance not form,” Loy said. “If this committee was created by the board, than it is subject to the Brown Act.” In supporting evidence filed in August, the organizations suing the district said they obtained text messages between “senior district officials” considering approving courses during Passover, a major Jewish holiday. (It’s unclear in the lawsuit if a senior district official is a board member, steering committee member or other official.) According to the lawsuit, one Santa Ana Unified official said to another in a text message, “on a good note no public comment on ethnic studies. We may need to use Passover to get all new courses approved. The other official replied, according to the lawsuit, “that’s actually a good strategy.” View this document on Scribd A school board member also suggestedJewish people should not be included in ethnic studies curriculum because “they are racialized as under the White category,” the lawsuit alleged. The lawsuit alleged a member of the district’s ethnic studies steering committee privately referred to a Jewish member of the committee as a “colonized Jewish mind” and a “(expletive) baby” for voicing concerns about antisemitism. During an April 25 Santa Ana Unified board meeting, Board Member Rigo Rodriguez acknowledged potential problems in one of the two proposed ethnic studies courses and suggested tabling a vote for two weeks. Board President Carolyn Torres, however, stated she was OK with approving the course “based on my personal opinion.” The board then voted 3-0 in favor of it, with Rodriguez abstaining. The second course passed unanimously. Torres did not respond to a request for comment. The courses are being taught to high school students in the district. “Open meetings are required by law specifically to prevent this type of situation,” said James Pasch, ADL’s senior director of national litigation. “The antisemitism that infected this process sent a clear message to Jewish students and families that their voices are not welcomed, and that they were intentionally excluded.” The curriculum was approved before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked a massive wave of antisemitism as well as Islamophobia. While reported hate crimes in California decreased by 7.1% in 2023 compared to the previous year, reported anti-Jewish bias crimes rose from 189 in 2022 to 289 last year, an increase of 52.9%, and reported anti-Muslim hate crimes increased from 25 in 2022 to 40 in 2023. In August, the Orange County Board of Education began developing its own ethnic studies curriculumfor its Alternative, Community and Correctional Education Schools and Services program that could also be made available to school districts across the county. The Board of Education oversees special education and alternative programs in the county, including ACCESS, which caters to students who face academic and social challenges in traditional classrooms and helps adults get their high school diplomas. Trustee Jorge Valdes, who suggested the county department create the curriculum, pointed to Santa Ana Unified, saying he wants the process to be “very open and transparent,” not “entirely in secret” like what Santa Ana has been accused of doing. It is “clear that certain individuals made a concerted effort to hide their prejudiced motives,” Steel said of the Santa Ana Unified case. “For this reason, we are requesting that (the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights) open a formal investigation into this matter to ensure all wrongdoing is brought to light and that those responsible for perpetrating this discrimination are held fully accountable under federal law.” A spokesperson for the Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment. Leal, Santa Ana Unified’s spokesperson, said the district is confident that if Steel’s investigation request is granted, it will “reveal, despite some strongly held opinions by members of the committee, that personal bias was not reflected in the final product we adopted.” “The goal of the curriculum is to approach the course work using critical thinking skills,” Leal said. “We are not trying to teach our students what to think, but how to think about and approach controversial subjects that elicit diverse perspectives, historical interpretations and opinions.” A hearing in the case is set for November in the Orange County Superior Court.