The California Department of Education has sued the Oakland Unified School District over what it says was the district’s failure to address “pervasive antisemitism” on its campuses.
The lawsuit, filed on March 5, comes after state officials say the district ignored a January state order mandating specific actions to confront what investigators described as a “discriminatory environment” in Oakland schools.
The state said OUSD “took no action whatsoever,” but the district asked for more time to implement the changes the day before the suit was filed.
The lawsuit places Oakland schools at the center of a broader national debate over how schools address antisemitism amid the Israel-Palestine conflict, with some arguing Jewish students need more protections amid rising hate incidents.
But critics say efforts to combat antisemitism increasingly blur the lines between antisemitism and political criticism of Israel and Zionism, which raises free speech concerns over the suppression of pro-Palestinian viewpoints.
To combat what it regards as antisemitism, the state required OUSD to take numerous actions.
The mandates included sending letters to all families and employees condemning antisemitism, and outlining steps to prevent it, requiring staff training on discrimination and rules on political activity and controversial topics discussed in classrooms, and site-specific antisemitism prevention plans, among other measures.
Another measure required the district to hold student assemblies about the Holocaust and Nazism at four schools — American Indian Model School, Thornhill Elementary, Montera Middle School and Oakland Technical High School. Those schools were chosen because of complaints about antisemitism there or antisemitic imagery found on campus.
Those directives stem from a state investigation that found school officials allowed anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian political posters and displays on school grounds, as well as what they described as one-sided lectures and staff engaging in political activism.
OUSD spokesperson John Sasaki declined to comment, citing a policy on speaking about pending litigation.
The Department of Education began investigating the school district after Oakland attorney Marleen Sacks filed complaints against the district on behalf of the Oakland Jewish Alliance, which formed after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel.
The state said OUSD leaders did not uphold its statutory requirement for investigating those kinds of complaints, and ultimately gave no determination regarding Sacks’ filings.
Sacks, who has filed multiple successful lawsuits against Oakland governing bodies, then went to the state, which last year found that the school district was creating the discriminatory environment it describes in this month’s suit.
“We file complaints, and the district continues to ignore them,” Sacks said in a statement. “Hopefully, the CDE’s lawsuit will help to address the problem.”
But Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource & Organizing Center, condemned in a statement what she described as the use of “lawfare straight from the MAGA playbook” by the state meant to bully the school district into not taking a stand “against genocide and anti-Palestinian racism.”
“This lawsuit is not only highly politicized and conflates criticism of the government of Israel with antisemitism, it is also dangerous, especially at a time when public education, the rights of teachers and students, and the safety of young people are already under attack,” Kiswani said. “It should become apparent to CA voters that the CA Department of Education has drifted well beyond its mission to support all CA students.”