State finds antisemitism occurred at Berkeley schools, mandates trainings | Local Schools

The California Department of Education has ruled in two appeals cases that unlawful discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students occurred at Berkeley Unified School District schools. The CDE has mandated discrimination prevention training for some BUSD students and staff.

Some individuals, including students, spoke out against the rulings at the BUSD Board of Education meeting Wednesday.

BUSD has previously been named in lawsuits brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law regarding alleged antisemitism.

“The district BUSD has always and will continue to engage with organizations that are focused on equity, including the Education Equity UCP Office, and comply with actions that the office deems are necessary, especially when such actions are aimed at preventing discrimination in our schools and in our classrooms,” said BUSD Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel at the board meeting.

One case of unlawful discrimination involved posters displayed in a Berkeley Independent Study, or BIS, classroom that featured phrases such as “Stop the Bombing FREE FREE PALESTINE” and “STOP Israeli/US Genocide in Palestine!” According to BUSD’s initial internal review, additional posters addressing the Holocaust were also displayed in the classroom, which BUSD argued presented an “anti-discrimination message.”

BUSD concluded that the presence of posters may have been “one-sided” but did not by itself constitute discrimination based on a protected characteristic. BUSD’s conclusion was appealed, and the CDE determined the posters “contribute to a discriminatory physical classroom environment” toward Jewish and Israeli people. The CDE mandated discrimination prevention training for all BIS teaching staff.

“I think this conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel is wrong and, quite frankly, dangerous,” said Dan Brownson, a clerical assistant at Berkeley High School. “It could lead to antisemitism because of people mentally conflating Jewish people with a government that is committing horrific crimes which my Jewish coworkers and students have nothing to do with.”

The other case of unlawful discrimination occurred during a student assembly led by the South and Southwest Asia and North Africa Club at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. BUSD’s internal review found that some of the maps of the Levant region used in assemblies omitted Israel and that assemblies concluded with chants of “Free Palestine.”

MLK Middle School also had an assembly led by its Jewish Student Union.

BUSD concluded that the SSWANA Club assembly contributed to a discriminatory conflict on the basis of a protected characteristic. This conclusion was appealed, in part, for providing insufficient corrective actions. The CDE mandated discrimination prevention training for MLK Middle School students, with a focus on antisemitism, as well as a training for all administrators.

“We are not asking schools to silence difficult conversations,” said Jewish Coalition of Berkeley leader Hillary Kilimnik in an email. “But education must provide context, encourage critical thinking, address challenges and suffering on both sides, and allow students to hold different perspectives without social repercussions. Our children deserve educators who help them engage across differences and form their own perspectives, rather than dictating a single point of view.”

Kilimnik said JCOB hopes the mandated trainings will foster “genuine dialogue and respect for multiple perspectives.” She noted that JCOB wants the BUSD administration to listen to the concerns of Jewish families and work with them to foster a “more inclusive” environment.

According to Yvette Felarca, a BIS teacher and member of the Equal Opportunity Now/By Any Means Necessary Caucus, the caucus’s lawyers plan on taking legal action against the CDE’s rulings.

“It has a chilling effect on not just what’s taught in the classroom or what’s discussed by teachers, but it really has a chilling effect as well on the students,” Felarca said. “And it’s a form of censorship.”

In November 2025, Willard Middle School history teacher Andrea Prichett filed a complaint against Assembly Bill 715, which was approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom to prevent antisemitism in California schools. In an interview with the Berkeley High Jacket, Prichett argued the bill was vague and could suppress “teachers’ ability to have discussions in their classrooms about the situation in the Middle East and in Israel and Palestine.”

BIS teacher and union representative Corey Wade said a resolution entitled “Protecting Teachers Who Support Palestinian Human Rights” was unanimously passed by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers on Thursday.

“Teachers deserve academic freedom,” Wade said in an email. “Educators have a duty … to address global human rights issues including genocide, to foster critical thinking, and uplift the perspectives of historically marginalized peoples.”