State education officials are suing the Oakland Unified School District over claims that it has failed to address persistent antisemitism on its campuses.
In a lawsuit filed March 9, the California Department of Education said OUSD “unlawfully refused and failed to carry out the corrective actions” to curb antisemitism, as ordered by CDE officials in January.
The suit follows an appeal by Oakland-based attorney Marleen Sacks, whose complaints about antisemitism at several schools led to an OUSD investigation.
Despite finding validity in several of those complaints and “although OUSD acknowledged discrimination against Jewish or Israeli persons, OUSD’s self-imposed corrective actions did not provide a fully appropriate remedy,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
To address this, state education officials ordered OUSD to implement various types of training for district and school site staff focused on anti-discrimination, with a particular emphasis on antisemitism.
The district was also ordered to send letters to all families and staff condemning antisemitism and addressing “the District-wide actions that the District is taking to prevent and remedy it,” according to the lawsuit.
Spokespeople for OUSD and CDE declined to comment, citing policies that forbid officials from talking about active litigation.
Assemblies ordered to teach about Holocaust
State officials also required American Indian Model Schools, Thornhill Elementary School, Montera Middle School and Oakland Technical High School to hold assemblies addressing “the Holocaust, what a swastika represents, and the harm that graffiti involving such imagery and other anti-Semitic imagery may cause,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaints about antisemitism at OUSD surfaced largely following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and that country’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.
Many of the complaints focused on the use of pro-Palestinian posters, flags, class lessons and other materials and activities, including student walkouts and “teach-ins.”
Some focused on antisemitic graffiti discovered at various campuses and, according to the suit, state officials subsequently found discrimination in three separate cases — one involving a teacher at Montera Middle School who posted and distributed pro-Palestinian and antisemitic material, one in which the Oakland Tech student newspaper published a pro-Palestinian and antisemitic article, and one involving a “walkout” by students and some staff at Westlake Middle School, that was planned by staff, to protest the war in Gaza.
The lawsuit also accuses OUSD of failing to address complaints of discrimination within the 60 days required by state law and for failing to turn over its investigation reports to state education officials.
The suit is seeking a court order requiring the district to comply with CDE’s requirements and to award the CDE court costs and attorneys’ fees.